In Mumbai: Husband of Kharghar daycare centre owner arrested

Pravin Nikam was on the run since the incident came to light; he has been booked for attempt to murder

The Kharghar police on Monday arrested Pravin Nikam, the husband of the owner of a playschool in Kharghar, where a nine-month-old girl was brutally assaulted by a domestic help on November 21.

CCTV grab of the footage showing a nine-month-old girl being brutally assaulted by a domestic help on November 21 at the daycare centre. (HT Photo)

Nikam, 39, was on the run since the incident came to light. The police have booked him for attempt to murder.

The police also took Priyanka Nikam, 34, the owner of the centre, in custody on Monday. Priyanka surrendered before the police on December 16, a day after the Bombay high court rejected her anticipatory bail plea. The court had then remanded her in judicial custody for 14 days.

Dilip Kale, senior police inspector of Kharghar police station, said, “We requested the court to cancel her custody and to remand her in police custody, so we could interrogate her. The court on Monday cancelled her judicial custody. Her husband was also produced before the court and both of them have been remanded in police custody for two days.”

He said, “Even as Priyanka was running the daycare centre, Pravin was its chairman. He is also responsible for what happened inside the centre. He has been booked under sections 307, 325 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code and the relevant sections of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.”