BENGALURU: City police probing into the alleged day care horror reported on the premises of Capgemini in Brookefield on Saturday arrested the woman who had recorded the videos and shared them with others.According to a senior police official, the accused was mainly arrested for recording the videos, which were against child rights, and for harassing the toddlers. Also, she had deleted many videos from her mobile phone and, when asked, made contradictory statements, leading police to believe that she had also harassed the toddlers and stage-managed some of the videos she had recorded. She was produced before the court and remanded to 14 days of judicial custody.According to police, the purported videos showed caregivers threatening toddlers aged between two and three years whenever they cried or caused a disturbance.The women allegedly subjected the children to various forms of abuse, including putting them inside a front-loading washing machine, making them sit on a western-style toilet, spraying water into their mouths using a toilet jet spray, locking them inside bathrooms and threatening them into remaining quiet.Capgemini, the IT firm on whose campus the daycare centre operates, said its foremost priority is the health, safety and well-being of its employees and their families.“We are cooperating fully with the relevant authorities and assisting them in their efforts to establish the facts,” it said in the statement.Reacting to the incident and the subsequent arrest, Karnataka Home Minister Priyank Kharge said the state has zero tolerance for such incidents.He said the episode not only affects the reputation of the company concerned but also impacts the ‘Brand Bengaluru’.“We have already sought clarification from the company through our department,” the minister told reporters here.He further said that large and reputed companies are governed by policies that extend beyond India and adhere to global standards.“They are expected to function according to those policies—how creches should be run, how nurseries should be managed, and how daycare centres should operate,” Priyank said.The minister noted that the companies have their own Standard Operating Procedures, which, in this case, appear to have been overlooked.“They should have carried out proper verification and different kinds of background checks. I believe that was not done,” he said.Priyank said he was awaiting the company’s written explanation and stressed that no organisation should permit such incidents to take place.Emphasising the need for greater care in matters involving young children, he said toddlers must be handled with the utmost responsibility.“What has happened is truly a matter that makes one hang one’s head in shame,” he said.The minister also pointed out that the Department of Women and Child Welfare has guidelines governing the operation and management of daycare centres.(With Agency Inputs)
