Minor chained to bench in Bhopal Madarsa sent to shelter home

The two were taken to the Ashoka Garden Police Station where a case was registered against Mohammed Shad, who runs the madarsa, and Hafiz (teacher) Salman, a resident of neighbouring Raisen district, under Sections 75 (punishment for cruelty to child) and 82 (corporal punishment) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, and IPC sections related to wrongful confinement and causing hurt.

In-charge of Ashoka Garden Police Station Umesh Yadav told The Indian Express that the two were sentenced to judicial remand of 14 days by a local court. The two minors are among 22 children who lived and studied in the residential facility. Many more students also come to the madarsa for taking tuitions in religious matters.

The parents of the ten-year-old, who live in Sonagiri locality of Bhopal, were not keen that the police register an FIR in the case. Backing Shad they said the minor often used to run home. The parents of the seven-year-old are separated and the mother earns lives in Gwalior, more than 400 km away from Bhopal.

Director Childline Archana Sahay said the two minors were produced before the district child welfare committee on Monday afternoon which recommended that they be sent to Nitya Seva Society, a shelter home in the capital, for two days. Sahay said the minors don’t want to live in the madarsa. She said the minors told her that at least a couple of other children were also chained.