Aunt booked for beating nephew with wire, banging his head on wall

MUMBAI: The police have booked a maternal aunt of a nine-year-old boy on cruelty charges for abusing her nephew with electric cables and banging his head against the wall in Vikhroli East. The injuries sustained by the boy were so severe that he was required to be admitted to Rajawadi Hospital for treatment. According to police, the woman, identified as Zahida Ansari alias Radhika, resorted to violence to force the boy to leave the house.
Senior inspector Santosh Ghatekar of the Parksite police station in Vikhroli said that in addition to registering an FIR, they have also sent a notice to the woman that a legal action will be initiated against her soon and also summoned her to the police station for questioning.
The officers said that the boy used to live in the Parksite area along with his father, Shakeel Mohammad Hussain Shaikh, 42, and two elder brothers who are 14 and 12 years old. The boy’s mother died when he was 2 years old and he was close to his maternal grandmother Hazra Ansari. After his mother died, his grandmother brought the boy to her residence in another locality in the Vikhroli and started to take care of him. “But unfortunately, she too died a month ago due to prolonged illness, after which the boy’s aunt Zahida and few other relatives came to stay at the grandmother’s house, where the boy was also living,” said an officer.
According to the FIR, the boy said in his statement that his maternal aunt Zahida and another relative did not like him staying at the house, which is why they started harassing him, thinking he would go back to his father’s residence in Parksite. The verbal harassment continued but on August 31 at around 1pm, Zahida beat the boy with using her hands and asked him to vacate the house immediately. The boy started crying and refused to leave, she then assaulted him with wire and banged his head with a wall.
The incident came to light when a relative had come to meet Zahida at the home and saw deep injury marks on the boy’s back. She also saw that the boy was feeling dizzy. The relative immediately informed the boy’s father about his condition and rushed him to the Rajawadi Hospital for treatment, said the police officer. The boy’s father Shakeel along with his friend Maqsood Shaikh saw that the boy’s head was swollen due to injury. He then approached the Parksite police station and based on his and son’s statement, the police registered a case against Zahida Ansari and two other women who were present at home.
In another case in the nearby Ghatkopar area, the police booked a man identified as Fahad Mohaseen Shaikh who assaulted a 10-year-old boy over enemity with father. He burnt the body of the kid with a cigarette on Sunday and also punched him multiple times.
“Shaikh is currently absconding and we have launched a manhunt to trace the accused. He does not get along with the boy’s father and therefore, out of revenge, he abused the boy by burning his body with a cigarette and also slapped him four to five times” said senior inspector Balwant Deshmukh of the Ghatkopar police station.
In both cases, the police from the respective stations have registered FIRs under sections 118(1) and 115(2) (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt by using dangerous weapons), 352 (intentional insult of another person), 351(2) (criminal intimidation) of the BNS along with section 75 (punishment for cruelty to child) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.