Assault on kid with special needs: School head, wife among four arrested

Police, on Sunday, arrested four people on charges of assaulting a boy with special needs at a residential school at Navanagar here. They were later produced before the judge, who remanded them in judicial custody. 

The arrested include Akshay Indolkar, head and teacher at Divyajyothi residential school for children with special needs, his wife Malini, Ravi and Vishal. The victim’s father had filed a police complaint in this regard.   

It is said that Akshay had thrashed the boy, Deepak Rathod (16) black and blue using a belt, plastic pipe, while Malini threw chilli powder on him. A video of the incident, which reportedly occurred two months ago, has gone viral on social media, attracting widespread criticism. 

The video shows the boy crying, but none of the other teachers present there coming to his rescue. The victim had suffered bruises as a result of the thrashing. 

On Sunday morning, deputy superintendent of police Gajanana Sutar brought the suspects to the school premises, conducted mahazar and took the items used to assault the boy into their custody. 

The authorities handed over most of the children in the school (out of a total of 49) to their parents on Sunday, while three others will be sent home with their families on Monday, Prabhakar, deputy director of the women and child development department, told reporters.  Earlier, principal civil judge Murugendra Tubaki of the judicial magistrate first class court visited the school and conducted an inspection. 

He took details of the incident from the police and district welfare officer for the specially abled Girija Patil.  MLC P H Poojar, who visited the school, told reporters that he would speak to the minister concerned on taking strict action against the suspects.