Kerala: Three caretakers arrested for allegedly injuring toddler at child welfare home in Thiruvananthapuram
Three caretakers at a Thiruvananthapuram child welfare home were arrested for allegedly injuring a 2.5-year-old girl's genitals as punishment for bedwetting, facing POCSO Act charges.
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FollowThiruvananthapuram: Three caretakers have been arrested for allegedly injuring the genitals of a two-and-a-half-year-old girl at a child welfare home in Thiruvananthapuram. The arrests followed a police complaint filed by the Secretary of Kerala State Council for Child Welfare, which accused the caretakers of assaulting the child for urinating in bed.
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The caretakers—Ajitha, Maheshwari, and Sindhu—are facing charges under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act for the assault and for attempting to conceal the incident. Ajitha is specifically accused of inflicting the injury, while Maheshwari and Sindhu are alleged to have covered up the crime.
The child, along with her five-year-old sibling, was brought to the welfare home after their mother's death and their father's subsequent suicide. The two-and-a-half-year-old frequently urinated in bed and was allegedly pinched and injured as punishment. The injuries were discovered when a fourth caretaker took over the child's care for a day and conveyed the information to higher authorities. All three arrested caretakers have been working at the welfare home for years.Â
The child received medical treatment and is reportedly in stable condition. G. L. Arun Gopi, the general secretary of the Child Welfare Committee, stated that the injuries were not serious and urged against causing panic. The welfare home employs 103 caretakers, all of whom are contract employees.Â
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