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On August 4, a couple dropped off their 15-month-old toddler at a daycare centre inside the residential complex where they lived in Noida’s Sector 137.
The mother returned to the daycare and asked to review the CCTV footage. What she saw chilled her to the bone — a teenage attendant who was tasked with caring for her child was allegedly seen slapping, hitting and throwing the girl on the floor even as she cried in pain.
Assistant Commissioner of Police, Baba Sahab Vir Kumar, said the teenager was apprehended and has been sent for a medical examination. “The girl is a minor and had joined the daycare only 10 days earlier,” he said.
The 10-minute-28-second CCTV footage shows the attendant holding the toddler in her arms and shutting the door of a room in the centre. She first picks up a green plastic bat from the floor with her foot and allegedly hits the toddler’s head multiple times. She then walks around the room, bashing the child’s head against the wall and later throwing her on the floor. Footage also shows her allegedly slapping the child.
In her complaint to the police on August 7, the mother said her child was at the daycare centre for two hours every day. On August 4, when she brought her child from the centre, she was crying.
“I was changing her clothes when I saw marks on both her thighs. I rushed her to the doctor, who said it was a bite mark,” the woman said in her complaint.
“To find out what happened, I went to the daycare centre and asked them to show me the CCTV footage. I saw the attendant slapping my child, throwing her on the floor, and hitting her with a plastic bat. It was the attendant who bit her on her thighs,” alleged the mother to the police.
She said that despite her daughter’s frantic cries, the daycare owner did not intervene.
The complaint further alleged that when the mother confronted the owner and attendant, they misbehaved with her and issued threats.
The Noida Police has registered the FIR against the attendant as well as the owner under sections 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 351(2) (criminal intimidation), and 352 (intentional insult with the intent to provoke a breach of peace) of the BNS.
Speaking to The Indian Express, investigating officer Vinod Kumar Mishr said they took the attendant into custody after the FIR was filed on August 7. “We have not arrested the owner of the daycare centre. If we find her involvement during the probe, she will be taken into custody,” said Mishr.
He said the teenager has been sent to a correctional home.
On Monday, when The Indian Express visited the society, residents said the daycare centre has been closed since August 7.
They said the three-room daycare, located on the ground floor of one of the towers, had been functioning for the last four years. “The owner used to live here… then she shifted to another area but continued operating the centre on rent,” said a mother of two, requesting anonymity.
She said that most residents, along with some from outside the society, dropped their children at the daycare, which opened at 9 am.
“This is the first time we have heard such a complaint,” she said.
Meanwhile, the toddler was to be presented before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) on Monday. “She could not be presented. We learnt that it was due to her ongoing medical checkups,” said CWC Chairman K C Virmani.
Virmani said that once the child is produced, the Labour Department will be consulted to decide on the violations and more sections will be further added to the existing FIR.
“We will be writing to the police to add sections of the POCSO Act, Juvenile Justice Act and sections pertaining to cruelty. Even if the girl (attendant) is a minor, in this case, we need to see if she is to be treated as an adolescent,” said Virmani.
“It is also the responsibility of the institution to ensure that all basic requirements are fulfilled. The role of those running the institution should be probed,” he said.
The ACP said the teenager has presented her documents to certify her age. “The toddler underwent a medical examination to assess her injuries,” he added.
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