Mumbai: Man approaches cops to know who 'pinched' his son in school

The red injury marks on Atharva's cheek

It's been over a month that Shekhar Mude has been trying to find out how on November 22 his son Atharva, who is a special child, returned from school with red marks on his cheek, and what actually led to that injury. But he is yet to get a satisfactory explanation from the school authorities regarding it.

School 'not bothered'
While Malad's Saksham Learning and Therapy Centre has denied any irresponsible behaviour on part of their staff, the school trustees feel that Munde has some personal grudge against the authorities. However, with no option left, he approached the Dindoshi police on Friday and filed a complaint regarding the matter. According to Mude's application, the red marks on Atharva's cheek were suggestive of the fact that someone had pinched them. But when he approached the school, the authorities ignored the matter, even though he is a member of the trust that runs the institute.

Though that day's CCTV footage revealed that something had happened inside the washroom, Mude alleged that the authorities said there was no way to establish that any of the staff members were involved because the washroom had no CCTV cameras. According to him, even after discussing the issue with the school authorities, he hasn't received a satisfactory explanation on what happened that day.

"The school had informed me that Atharva developed some red marks on his cheek and that they were taking care of it. But later when I saw it, I got shocked. It was clear that someone had pinched him hard. The service provider of the van that dropped him home told my wife that there was some problem while changing his diaper. But Atharva is capable of doing it on his own," said Mude.

He further said, "The next day I checked the CCTV footage in which I saw that before three staff members took Atharva to the washroom he did not have the marks on his cheek, but after they came out with him, the marks were there. I demanded an inquiry against the staffers but no one was bothered. Instead, my wife and I were removed from the school's whatsapp group."

Principal Farzana Badamia said, "Special children sometimes inflict self-injury. Our staff are completely trained to deal with special kids and there cannot be any irresponsible behaviour on their part."

'Nothing wrong with staff'
Adding to this, Joyjit Gupta, a trustee, said, "We have addressed the concerns raised by Mude. Even a special meeting was held so that he could put forward his grievances. But all the other parents felt that there cannot be anything wrong with the school's staff. Mude should resolve all the grudges he has against the trust and the school." Inspector Xavier Rego, said, "The parent has approached us with a written application. We are taking the required steps to investigate the matter."

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates