BENGALURU: An employee who earlier reported alleged abuse of children at a daycare centre on Capgemini’s Bengaluru campus was fired from job.The allegation comes as police investigate disturbing videos that appear to show toddlers being subjected to physical abuse at the facility, leading to the arrest of five childcare workers.Kumar said between 50 and 60 children were enrolled at the daycare centre, with around 15 to 20 attending on any given day.“This has been happening for a long time,” he said. “Earlier, someone informed the supervisor, but no action was taken.”He added that the employee who first reported the alleged abuse was later dismissed from her job.Police sources privy to the investigation said the videos were recorded by an employee of the daycare centre. “She was fired from the job and was serving notice period. She recorded the videos on her mobile and shared them with a family member, who handed them in to the child helpline officer. One old CCTV clip shows a woman, resembling the terminated employee, threatening and locking a toddler inside a room. If proved, we’ll book a case against her too,” he said.Kumar also said authorities had long suspected children were being mistreated at the facility but had been unable to prove it until the videos surfaced.The case came to light after a child helpline official received four videos allegedly showing children being subjected to ill-treatment at the daycare centre, located on the premises of Capgemini’s campus in Brookefield. The official later filed a complaint with Bengaluru’s HAL Police.According to police sources, the videos were recorded by a staff member whose friend had been fired from the same daycare centre last month.The videos appear to show toddlers aged between two and three being placed inside a front-loading washing machine, sprayed with water from a toilet jet, locked inside toilets and threatened into silence, according to police.Five women employed as nannies at the centre — Manjula, Vijayalakshmi, Bhavani, Sindhu and Bindu — have been arrested. They have been booked under provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act and Section 351 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which relates to criminal intimidation.‘A very serious issue’Police commissioner Seemanth Kumar Singh described the allegations as “a very serious issue” and said investigators were verifying the videos, CCTV footage and other technical evidence. “No one will be spared,” he told reporters, adding that senior officers, including a woman deputy commissioner of Police and the Joint Commissioner (East), were overseeing the investigation.Singh also said police would examine other daycare centres operating in the city to verify whether they were authorised and complying with prescribed safety norms. Police sources said the videos were allegedly recorded by a staff member whose friend had lost her job at the daycare centre last month. The complaint was later filed by a child helpline official after receiving the footage. The investigation is ongoing, and police say they are working to identify whether any additional people were involved.
