Live-in nanny assaults 4-yr-old girl, flees with valuables in Bengaluru

Bengaluru: A live-in nanny allegedly attacked a four-year-old girl before fleeing the city with valuables from the house where she worked in Bengaluru.

The JC Nagar police registered an FIR on September 9 against Sabina Soren, the nanny, and Usmitha Bhunij, her friend, who allegedly threatened the complainant. DH has withheld the complainant’s and his wife’s names on request.

According to the FIR, the incident occurred on September 5. The complainant told the police that they were assigned Sabina after they sought services from the portal bookmybai.com. On September 5, they found out that, without informing anyone, Sabina had left after allegedly stealing Rs 15,000 in cash and gold ornaments worth Rs 25,000.

What further traumatised the complainant is that he learnt Sabina had assaulted his child in her stomach, neck and legs, the FIR noted.

On September 9 at 11 am, the complainant’s wife received a phone call from Usmitha, who threatened her with consequences if they approached the police.

Following the complaint, the JC Nagar police booked the two suspects under Sections 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 306 (servant theft), 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and 351(2) (criminal intimidation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

The child’s mother later narrated the incident on social media. “A deeply disturbing incident has compelled me to share this here. Our live-in nanny, hired through BookMyBai.com, assaulted my 4-year-old daughter and stole jewellery and money from our home. To cover her tracks, she even removed all the CCTV SD cards from our cameras,” she wrote on LinkedIn.

“Here’s what else we would like to disclose: They do not provide proof of background checks. We had to take their word for it; they refused to give any medical records; we were promised a nanny with prior experience — she had none. We interviewed and called home an approximate number of eight to nine nannies before we got tired and kept the current one - none of them had any experience; because of so-called ‘training’, they all quoted a whopping Rs 18,000 per month, which we were told was non-negotiable,” she alleged.