A 10-year-old boy was allegedly stripped and tied to a tree by his family near Tata Colony in Juhu for over an hour on Monday before the police intervened. The Juhu police, however, did not take any action against the family for the abuse.
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According to sources, a resident of Tata Colony brought the matter to the attention of the police in the morning after he heard the boy crying. “The boy was crying loudly for around 45 minutes. I finally went to my balcony and saw that he had been stripped naked and tied to a tree. There were four to five other young boys who were standing there and doing nothing while he cried,” the eyewitness, who did not wish to be named, told The Hindu .
The eyewitness alerted the police, and a team from Juhu police station went to the spot. The police untied the boy and made inquiries with his parents. “The boy’s mother told us that he had run away from school and come home early, and so his elder brother stripped and tied him up,” said senior police inspector Sunil Ghosalkar. He declined to give details about the boy’s identity as he is a minor.
When asked why no action was taken against the family, Mr. Ghosalkar said, “The boy said he did not want to file a complaint against his family.”
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Child rights lawyers, however, said the boy, being a minor, was not legally competent to make such a decision, and that the least the police could have done was to inform the Child Welfare Committee.
Lawyer Maharukh Adenwalla said, “The police should find out whether the brother is a minor or an adult. If he is an adult then a First Information Report (FIR) needs to be filed against him and the mother. If he is a minor, the matter should be sent to the Juvenile Justice Board. Also, the Child Welfare Officer of the police station concerned should make inquires with the child.”
An officer in each police station is designated as a Child Welfare Officer to deal with cases relating to child welfare and juveniles in conflict with the law.