The Juvenile Justice Board has sent a 10-year-old girl for counselling after police said CCTV footage showed her lifting an 18-month-old toddler and throwing her down the stairwell of a housing society in Goregaon, Mumbai, resulting in the child’s death.
The toddler lived with her parents and brother on the sixth floor of the building. According to the report, she was playing with a stray cat in the common corridor outside her home on Wednesday night. When her brother later went to look for her, she could not be found.
Residents subsequently found the toddler severely injured on the ground floor. She was taken to a doctor, who pronounced her dead, the report said. Police investigating the incident reviewed CCTV footage from the building and identified a 10-year-old neighbour in connection with the fall.
The child and her family had moved into the housing society about a fortnight before the incident. Police produced the 10-year-old before the Juvenile Justice Board after reviewing the footage and investigating the circumstances surrounding the toddler’s death.
A police officer quoted in the report said the JJB had placed the child in the care of a non-profit organisation for counselling. The officer also said police had not registered an offence and would take further action in accordance with the board’s direction.
The case is being handled under the juvenile justice process because the child produced before the board is 10 years old. The police account, as reported, is based on the CCTV footage and the subsequent investigation. The report did not provide further details about the counselling arrangement, the board’s next hearing or any additional directions issued to the housing society.
The JJB’s counselling direction is the immediate procedural step disclosed in the case. Further action will depend on the board’s directions and the findings of the police investigation.
