Delhi daycare abuse probe widens after CCTV shows 3-year-old tied to chair, slapped, kicked
NEW DELHI — Police in the Indian capital have arrested a caretaker and opened a wider investigation after CCTV footage from a private playschool in
NEW DELHI — Police in the Indian capital have arrested a caretaker and opened a wider investigation after CCTV footage from a private playschool in northeast Delhi’s Maujpur allegedly showed a three-and-a-half-year-old boy being tied to a chair, slapped and kicked. The case has triggered outrage far beyond the school gates, with officials now examining how the child was treated and who else may face charges.
The boy’s family says the alarm was first raised at home. His father, Navneet Chaudhary, said the child returned from school on August 18 vomiting and dizzy, after days of distress. A pediatrician later noticed swollen eyes, and an ENT specialist found the child’s eardrums were swollen and close to rupturing, according to the family.
CCTV footage at centre of case
Chaudhary said the family then went back to the school and asked to see the CCTV recordings. He alleged the management initially reacted rudely and claimed the cameras were not working. The family later paid Rs 1,500 to view the footage, according to the complaint cited in local reports.
What they say they saw was disturbing. The recordings allegedly show the boy being restrained, beaten, pulled by the ears and denied food for hours. One report also says the family was shown another clip in which a nanny allegedly behaved inappropriately toward the child. Police have not publicly detailed every allegation, but the case has been registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
Short. Brutal. Clear.
Police, school and education officials move in
Delhi Police have named four school officials in the case, including the director, principal and two teachers, while a caretaker has been arrested. The school is a private playschool in Maujpur, an area in northeast Delhi. The investigation is still underway, and officers are checking the footage and the sequence of events that led to the complaint.
A separate inquiry is also being conducted by the Directorate of Education, according to reports. That adds another layer to a case that has already raised questions about oversight in early-childhood centres, where children are often too young to describe abuse clearly or defend themselves when something goes wrong.
Why the case is resonating
Child safety at schools and daycare centres has become a recurring concern in many countries, especially where parents rely on private facilities for long hours and assume basic supervision is in place. Cases like this tend to spread quickly because they combine two fears at once: harm to a very young child and a breach of trust by the adults meant to care for him.
For the family, the signs were there only after the child came home unwell. Since then, the focus has shifted to the school’s records, the arrested caretaker and the officials now under scrutiny. Police are expected to piece together the footage with medical findings and the family’s complaint as the probe continues.
