Caretaker arrested in child sexual assault case

An awareness workshop 'Arivu Neravu' helped the cops trace the case

An awareness workshop 'Arivu Neravu' for the children of 30 child care centres recently helped the police in tracing the case of a sexual assault on a minor boy by the caretaker of an institution.

Ayub (52), a resident of Konaje, and the caretaker of Noorani Yathim Khana and Darul Maskeen at Kumpala has been arrested on the charges of sexually assaulting a minor boy, said City Police Commissioner N Shashi Kumar to mediapersons.

The awareness workshop, which was conceived by DCP (Law and order) Hariram Shankar, was attended by 480 children from 30 child care institutions coming under City Police Commissionerate jurisdiction and was organised jointly by the police department, Child Welfare Committee, Child Protection unit and K S Hegde Hospital. It aimed at creating awareness on good touch and bad touch, physical abuse, sexual abuse and counselling the children by the experts. “We had given children a questionnaire and based on the feedback from the questionnaire, the children were counselled by the experts, which helped the child to reveal the trauma he was undergoing,” said the Commissioner.

Stating that there were 79 children at Noorani Yathim Khana Darul Maskeen, the Commissioner said during the counselling, four more children have disclosed that they have been sexually abused by the caretaker of the institute. All the victimised children have been counselled by the Child Welfare Committee along with the experts and have been shifted to safer locations. The officials had visited the Noorani Yathim Khana in the guise of creating awareness on Covid-19 and engaged the children in various activities to help them open up comfortably.

During the workshop for children, about 20 instances of bullying by senior children, forcing kids to work by the concerned at child care institutes have come to the notice of the police. A detailed compiled report has been submitted to the CWC for further action.

The victim has informed the counsellors and police during the counselling that he was being sexually abused and assaulted for the last two months. Counselling of all the children are taken up to bring out more instances to the limelight, said the Police Commissioner.

He appealed to parents to interact personally with their children who are staying in orphanages and child care institutions. If they come across any instances of abuse, sexual assault, then it should be brought to the notice of the police.

The Police Commissioner said that Deputy Commissioner is also informed on the sexual assault on the child at child care centre. DCP (Law and Order) will be the investigation officer in the case. A case under Pocso Act has been registered at Women’s Police Station.