An official said that on Thursday, police in the Maharashtra district of Palghar filed a complaint against a man for allegedly beating a 13-year-old boy who he had illegally hired as a domestic helper severely because the boy was late for work.
According to him, the incident happened on Monday in the district’s Khamloli village.
According to the police, Rajendra Sitaram Patil was charged with violating the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities Act), the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, and the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act.
Apart from this, he was also booked under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), they said.
An official of Manor police station said, “The victim boy and the accused live in the same village. Patil had employed the minor to look after his cattle at his house. The teenage boy had lost his mother several years back, while his father is a tuberculosis patient.”
He added, “On September 25, the boy went out in the morning to have darshan of Ganesh idols in the village. While returning to the employer’s house, he saw some boys playing somewhere and joined them. Due to this, he reached the workplace late.”
Patil had beaten and verbally abused the boy because he was upset with him for being late to work. According to the police official, the boy went to his father and told him about the incident.
The victim’s father and a few other villagers went to the accused’s home to confront him about it. However, the accused also mistreated them. The boy’s father reportedly lodged a complaint against him.
The accused has not yet been detained, and the case is still under investigation, the police official said.
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