Guwahati, March 16: A city-based crèche, Little Star, was embroiled in a controversy today after the father of a child lodged an FIR alleging that his 14-month-old son was physically assaulted at the facility on Tuesday.
L. Ranbir Singh lodged an FIR at Bhangagarh police station here last night alleging that his son was suffering from fever since returning from the crèche on Tuesday and that a medical examination had confirmed that the injury marks on his body was a result of a beating.
"My wife noticed some marks on his back when she fetched him from the crèche. She told me about it when I came home in the evening. I immediately called an aya (nurse) of the crèche who said she was not aware about it. But my son got fever that night," Singh said today.
He said the crèche ignored the allegation and said that it might be a skin disease. Today, when the police went to the crèche to investigate, the crèche authorities refused to show them the CCTV footage, saying the system was not working for some days.
"Yesterday, the crèche authorities said they would inform me what actually happened to my child after examining the CCTV footage. But today they said their CCTV system was not working for many days, which is a contradictory statement," Singh said.
The crèche authorities today denied all the allegations.
"We are very sensitive about the care of a child. Allegation of beating a child is not correct. They informed us about the incident on March 14 but dropped the child in our crèche again the next day. After that they lodged the FIR. Whey didn't they lodge the FIR on March 14?" asked S.P. Sarma, owner of the crèche.
The police said a case was registered following the FIR and an investigation was under way. Cases like this are probed under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2000.