Mumbai: ‘Teachers booked for assault not yet arrested’

The police have not made any arrests in the case of the Kandivli preschool whose two teachers were booked under the Juvenile Justice Act for assaulting the children there While a parent alleged that police told them the teachers have secured anticipatory bail the zonal deputy commissioner said no arrests are required in the case and they are following procedureThe parents of the kids at the preschool have also claimed that the accused teachers also would use one tissue to wipe the noses of fourfive kids causing them to fall sick They claimed most of the preschoolers had fallen sick and were admitted to hospitals with highgrade fevers infectious throat etc One of the girls was recently discharged from an Intensive Care Unit ICU they saidA 35yearold chartered accountant the parent of one of the kids registered a First Information Report FIR at Kandivli police station against the Rhymes and Rumbles Playgrouprsquos teachers Jeenal Chheda and Bhakti Shaha after seeing multiple CCTV footage grabs showing them being brutal with the preschoolersAssaults from beforeThe brutal assaults brought alarming behavioural changes in the preschoolers who are mostly between 225 years old Though the CCTV footages could be retrieved only between January and March most of the parents believe that the accused teachers had been assaulting their children even before January The records are available only for past three months The preschool was started in September 2022Talking to midday the complainantrsquos counsel advocate Mrunmayee Chowkidar said ldquoThese teachers Chheda and Shaha would often assault the children at the playschool Though the FIR has been registered under sections 75 and 23 of Juvenile Justice Act the police have not arrested either of themrdquoAlso read Stamp paper new circular issue Allow helping hand for elderly differently abled say advocatesldquoWhen we asked the cops why they have not been arrested the Kandivli police told us the accused teachers have applied for anticipatory bail How can they do this when electronic evidence has been provided to themrdquo asked one of the mothers whose boy was assaulted at the preschoolAround 30 preschoolers had taken admission in the recently opened play school where the parents had paid around Rs 28000 for six monthsAggressive behaviourmidday spoke to a number of the parents and most of them had noticed injury marks and bruises on the bodies of their children ldquoWhen asked Chheda told me that my child might have had fights with the other children and got injured I was convinced but there were many behavioural changes in my babyrdquo said another mother whose two and half year old daughter is at the playschoolldquoMy daughter had become very aggressive and would point her finger while talking to us whenever we tried to mend her habits It was something very unusual which she learnt at the preschool She would often throw her food plates had become very aggressive and hit her grandparents for no reasonrdquo added the womanShe further said ldquoI have learnt that the teachers would assault children for going to the washroom My daughter would stand in a corner and soil her clothes instead of asking to go to the washroom This was something very alarmingrdquoAnother woman said ldquoMy child has become so aggressive that he would always assault his grandparents and never mingle with the visitors He assaults our guestrsquos childrenrdquoThe mothers would discuss the behavioural changes in their children However one day the owner of the play school came across Chheda and Shaha assaulting the children After scanning CCTV footage the owners contacted the parents of the children who were assaulted by the teachers Though the CCTV footages they saw were disturbing the parents maintained calm and called for a meeting with the accused teachers The owner of the school was not available for commentldquoThey did not utter a word when we confronted them to know why they assaulted the children at play schoolrdquo said a parentldquoMost of the children were scared to attend the preschool because of the brutal assaults by the teachers The accused teachers are seen pulling childrenrsquos cheeks while gnashing their teeth dragging them on the floor by their hands slapping them squeezing their noses etcrdquo advocate Chowkidar told middayThe zonal Deputy Commissioner of Police DCP Ajay Kumar Bansal said ldquoNo immediate arrests are required in this case As per the Supreme Court guideline the accused needs to be given notice in a case where punishment is less than seven years So following the procedure we have given the 41A of CrPC notice to both the accused Our investigations are underwayrdquo