Mumbai: An FIR has been lodged against the manager of an ashram school in the western suburbs for allegedly physically assaulting two boys, aged 11 and 14, which forced them to flee in the dead of night earlier this month.A passenger found the children at Dadar station as they were planning to board a train to Ahilyanagar and took them to GRP. They are currently at a govt shelter.The 11-year-old told police he used to live in the eastern suburbs with his parents and studied till Class 4 in a civic school. Fed up with his parents fighting often, he went to live with his grandmother. Last Sept, his father died and his mother enrolled him at the ashram school.The child and a cousin, who also stayed at the ashram school, were assigned the task of filling up water at 4am every day. On June 8, they finished the task from 4am-5am and went back to bed. The 11-year-old was assigned kitchen duty at 6am, but he and his cousin failed to wake up on time.The 21-year-old manager, who is physically challenged and wears a prosthetic, hit the cousin with a bottle. He then entered the kitchen where the 11-year-old was working, hit him twice on the back, grabbed him by his neck, and slapped him multiple times. The boy later confided in his 14-year-old friend, whose task was to purchase vegetables from a vendor.The two decided to escape. The older boy borrowed Rs 100 from the vendor. Late one night, the two slipped out of the school and took a lift from an auto driver till the nearest station. They boarded a local train and got off at Dadar station.The 11-year-old wanted to travel to Ahilyanagar to be with his mother. As the two began enquiring about tickets, a passenger spotted them and took them to Dadar GRP.GRP learnt about the abuse, got them to speak to their parents over phone, and sent them for medical examinations. The FIR was lodged under relevant sections of Juvenile Justice Act and BNS and the case transferred to local police recently.
