Warden, cook at an institution thrash mentally challenged boy

A 14-year-old mentally challenged boy had been beaten up by the warden and cook of the Sumukha Manovikasa Kendra in Malleswaram, where the boy had been staying.

The victim Madesha, a native of Begur in Gundlupet in Chamarajanagar district, has been admitted to the ICU of St John’s Hospital by his parents after the incident and is said to be critical. The parents later filed a complaint against the warden Baghyamma and the cook with the Seshadripuram police.

A senior police officer said that the boy’s father Basavegowda said in his complaint that Madesha had been admitted to Sumukha Manovikasa Kendra as he is a special child. Basavegowda has been paying fees to the organisation.

Though Basavegowda met the boy every month, he could not visit him since March due to the COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent lockdown.

On Saturday, the warden called Basavegowda to inform him that the boy fell while climbing up the roof. Basavegowda rushed to the institute and noticed that his son's hands and legs were swollen. Basavegowda admitted the boy to the hospital. The boy later told his mother that the warden and a woman cook had beaten him up with a wooden log.

The victim’s mother Mahadevamma, a daily wage labourer, said Madesha had told her that he had not been given food for a few weeks and he was crying. The two women thrashed him and locked him up in a room. Bhagyamma confessed to beating up the boy and she even paid the medical expenses for three days, but she stopped visiting after that.