According to the complaint, children were allegedly put inside a front-loading washing machine.
NEW DELHI: Bengaluru Police on Tuesday defended the arrest of Sujatha, the whistleblower in the alleged abuse of toddlers at a daycare centre inside an IT firm’s campus, saying investigators had found “enough evidence” to name her as an accused in the case.Police commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh said the evidence gathered so far suggested Sujatha was “also an equal party to the crime”, even though she was the one who first brought the alleged abuse to light, news agency PTI reported.Sujatha, a former caregiver at the daycare centre on Capgemini’s Brookefield campus, was arrested on Saturday. She is the second person to be held in the case after another caregiver, Vijayalakshmi.Addressing criticism over the arrest of the whistleblower, Singh said the probe had already established that “something has gone wrong at the daycare centre, 100 per cent”, though investigators were still verifying the full extent of the abuse.He said police had found lapses in the way the matter was reported after the incidents surfaced. According to him, procedures mandated under child protection laws were not followed, and there was a delay of several days in reporting the recorded evidence to the authorities. The police chief also said investigators had found indications that one of the alleged incidents may have been “stage-managed”, though he declined to elaborate, saying the investigation was still under way.Even while acknowledging Sujatha’s role in exposing the alleged abuse, Mr Singh said the evidence collected so far pointed to her involvement as well.The case centres on disturbing videos that allegedly show toddlers — some between the ages of two and three — being physically abused and threatened by caregivers at the daycare centre.According to the complaint, children were allegedly put inside a front-loading washing machine, forced to sit on a western-style toilet, sprayed with water in the mouth using a toilet jet, locked inside bathrooms, and threatened into silence.The allegations have triggered outrage, with the arrest of the whistleblower adding another layer of controversy to a case that has already raised serious questions about child safety and accountability at daycare facilities.
