Two teachers of preschool arrested for mistreating children

Two teachers of Rhymes n Rumbles preschool in Mumbai were arrested for mistreating, hitting and pinching toddlers after video footage was provided by parents.

MUMBAI: Two teachers of a preschool were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly mistreating, hitting and pinching toddlers. The two of them were booked three weeks back and their plea for anticipatory bail was rejected by the Bombay high court on Monday (April 24), according to Kandivali police.

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The teachers, Jinal Cheda, 40, and Bhakti Shah, 32, of Rhymes n Rumbles in Kandivali West, were produced before the Borivali metropolitan magistrate court on Thursday and remanded to police custody for a day. The police said they analysed video recordings provided by the parents and arrested the teachers.

“We are grateful that the first step has been taken towards justice,” said Kaushal Dinesh Zaveri, 35, the complainant in the FIR registered on April 2. Zaveri, who works for Goregaon-based Asian Paints, said the two teachers had sought anticipatory bail from the sessions court and the high court. Both the courts rejected their pleas.

A police officer said that in September 2022, Cheda had opened the preschool in partnership with Meghna Joshi, 43, and Viraj Upadhyay, 48.

Cheda also taught at the preschool, along with her assistant Bhakti, and there were two child caretakers — Mangla and Sandhya. “We have recorded the statements of all the staff and the parents based on which we will prepare the chargesheet against the two teachers,” said the officer.

Zaveri had approached the police, complaining that the teachers at the preschool had mistreated his son and other children. Zaveri said that he had enrolled his son in the preschool, for two hours every day, in October last year.

“There was no way to conduct a background check of the preschool, our choice was based only on the suggestions of other parents,” said Zaveri. There are two batches in the preschool with 25 children in each of them.

Zaveri said, “Since December, we started observing minor behavioural changes in my son. He feared noise even if it was a relative laughing loudly. As days passed, he started getting aggressive.”

Zaveri said he initially thought his son was probably being bullied by other kids in the preschool. “I then grew suspicious and spoke with the other parents. I soon realised that all the parents were experiencing similar behavioural changes in their children,” said Zaveri, who then asked the teachers to provide the CCTV recordings of the class sessions.

“I was shocked to see that the two teachers — Cheda and Shah — were hitting the kids and literally, throwing them on the ground. They would pinch their cheeks hard if they did not pose for a promotional photo or even smacked them in the head with a book if they accidentally dropped it. They generally hit one kid and made an example out of that child as others sat in fear,” said Zaveri.

Zaveri told the police that Cheda had admitted more kids than they could handle with just two assistant teachers. “One of the teachers quit in January and the other followed whatever Cheda did,” said Zaveri.

After watching the CCTV recordings, Zaveri and other parents approached the police. On April 2, the two teachers were booked under section 23 of the Juvenile Justice Act 2000 (Punishment for cruelty to a juvenile or child).