BENGALURU: The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has taken suo motu cognisance of the alleged torture of toddlers at a daycare centre on Capgemini’s Brookefield campus and is sending a two-member fact-finding team to Bengaluru today, news agency ANI reported.In a July 2 letter to the Bengaluru Urban deputy commissioner, NCPCR member secretary Dr Sanjeev Sharma said the commission decided to inquire into the matter after media reports surfaced.The team, led by senior technical expert Paresh Shah and law officer Anshita Surana, will remain in Bengaluru till July 4 and return to Delhi on July 5. The district administration has been asked to provide logistical support.The case came to light earlier this week after videos allegedly showing caregivers abusing toddlers aged two to three years were circulated on WhatsApp and reported to Child Helpline.
Police said the footage purportedly shows children being placed inside a front-loading washing machine, sprayed with a toilet jet, locked inside bathrooms, forced onto a Western-style toilet and threatened into silence when they cried.HAL police booked five daycare workers — Manjula, Vijayalakshmi, Bhavani, Sindhu and Bindu — under provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act and Section 351 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.During questioning, the women denied physically abusing the children but admitted to shouting at toddlers who created “too much disturbance”. Police said they also claimed a two-year-old who could not sit on a Western commode was made to stand while one caregiver held the child and another cleaned him.Police on Friday arrested a second woman after identifying her through verification of the video footage, commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh said. She will be produced before a court, and police will seek her custody for further interrogation.A deputy commissioner-rank woman officer has been assigned to lead the investigation alongside the joint commissioner of police (East). Singh said the priority was ensuring that “no one will be spared”, including anyone who enabled or covered up the abuse.The Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (KSCPCR) has also launched a parallel inquiry. Chairman Santhosh Kumar said the commission inspected the now-shut daycare with police and is arranging counselling for the affected children.It has sought details of all 35 children enrolled at the centre and plans to meet their parents. Kumar said the commission would recommend a formal SOP for daycare centres and coordinate its inspection with the visiting NCPCR team. KSCPCR member Satyanarayana Shetty said the panel also inspected daycare centres at Manyata Tech Park on Friday to verify compliance.Karnataka home minister Priyank Kharge termed the alleged abuse “absolutely unacceptable” and said a report had been sought from officials. He said the daycare management had been asked to submit a written explanation and added that the incident had “tarnished Brand Bengaluru”.Capgemini said it had temporarily shut the on-campus daycare as a precaution and was cooperating fully with the investigation. In an email to employees, India CEO Sanjay Chalke said the company’s thoughts were with the affected children and families and that employees impacted by the closure had been allowed to work from home.The incident has triggered outrage among Bengaluru’s tech community, with parents demanding stricter regulation of daycare centres, including livestreamed CCTV access, round-the-clock monitoring, biometric access controls and mandatory recording of all daycare areas except private spaces.Police said they were also verifying whether the outsourced operator manages other daycare centres in the city as part of a wider compliance drive.(With agency inputs)
