A teacher and the manager of a preschool in Pune’s Ghorpadi area have been booked after a three-year-old child was allegedly locked inside a school toilet for several hours as punishment for misbehaving in class, police said. The case was registered at Mundhwa police station about a month after the alleged incident, with the preservation of CCTV footage also emerging as a central issue.
According to the complaint, the incident took place on September 8 between 11.15 am and 2.15 pm at a preschool on B T Kawade Road. The child, aged three years and four months, was enrolled in the nursery class. The child’s mother, a 36-year-old professor at a reputed college, filed the complaint against teacher Manita Bedi and school founder-director Sonali Deshmukh.
Mundhwa police station’s in-charge senior police inspector Smita Wasnik said the mother had gone to collect her child from school when the teacher allegedly told her that the child had been confined to a room because of misconduct in class. When the mother questioned the child, the child was crying and allegedly said that he had been locked inside a toilet.
According to the complaint, the teacher later allegedly admitted to keeping the child in the toilet for some time. The teacher is reported to have said that the child was being very mischievous and that there was no other place available to keep him. Wasnik said the investigation was under way and that further action would be taken according to law.
The complaint also raises questions about access to and preservation of CCTV footage. The parents reportedly sought the footage from the school to establish what had happened. They allege that the manager initially avoided providing it and that the footage was shown to them only after repeated follow-up on September 21. The parents claim the footage showed the teacher taking the child into the toilet and locking him inside.
When the parents reportedly asked for the footage again the following day, the manager allegedly said that the earlier recording had been deleted because new footage had overwritten it. Police are investigating whether the CCTV recording was deleted and how the evidence was handled. The availability, retention and timely sharing of surveillance footage are significant in cases involving children because such recordings may help establish the sequence of events and the actions of staff members.
Police sub-inspector Ranjit Mhaske, who is investigating the case, said offences had been registered under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015. The preschool management is also reported to have taken action against the teacher. The police investigation and the examination of the CCTV footage will determine the circumstances of the alleged confinement and the responsibility of those involved.
