10-month-old banged on the floor by caretaker; suffers skull fracture

A 10-month-old girl is battling for life after being kicked, hit and banged on the floor at a Kharghar-based playschool.

On her first day back to work after maternity leave, Ruchita Sinha, a Human Resources Deputy manager in a private firm in Chembur, dropped baby Ritisha at Purva Playschool and Nursery on November 21. She called the playschool every 30 minutes to know if her baby was settling down.

“Every time I called the school, the principal Priyanka Nikam assured me that my daughter was doing well. At around 7.30 p.m. when I went to pick up my daughter, I noticed there was a blood clot on her head and she was semi-conscious. My husband Rajat, who is an Executive Engineer with ONGC, and I enquired with Ms. Nikam and she said the baby had hurt herself,” Ms. Sinha said.

The Sinhas provided preliminary treatment to their daughter that night and on Tuesday morning they took her to Fortis Hiranandani in Vashi where the doctors said it was a case of severe physical assault. Ritisha had a skull fracture besides internal brain injury and doctors said she was critical.

“On Tuesday I approached the school for CCTV footage but they refused to giving it. Later that night I approached Kharghar police. At the police station, after a lot of persuasion, Mrs Nikam assured that she would give me the CCTV footage on Wednesday morning. But I was allowed to see the footage only on Wednesday night. The video clearly shows how my little child was assaulted and even banged on the floor by the caretaker,” Ms. Sinha said.

The FIR was registered early on Thursday following which the Ms. Nikam and the caretaker Afsana Shaikh were arrested and produced before Panvel court. While Ms. Nikam was released on bail, Shaikh was remanded to jail custody for 14 days. They were arrested under sections 325 (voluntarily causing grevious hurt) and 34 (Acts done by several persons) of the IPC and section 23 of Child Protection of Children Act 2000.

“The police should have charged them under attempt to murder. Justice has not been done to what my daughter had to go through,” said Ms. Sinha.