The Rajouri police in Jammu and Kashmir have booked a Maulvi of a local Madarsa in the Pulliyan village for severely beating up a 10-year-old boy and keeping him chained in illegal confinement for three days. The accused cleric identified as Mohd Basharat has been booked under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 342 (wrongful confinement) IPC, and section 75 of the Juvenile Justice Act. An FIR has also been registered against his Madarsa.
The police have launched a manhunt to nab the accused, who has been absconding ever since the child managed to run away from the Madarsa on Sunday, July 23.
The incident came to the fore after the child, a resident of the Androot village, ran away from the Madarsa and showed up in front of a bakery in the Rajouri town. His hands were tied with a chain when the owner of the bakery spotted him. When questioned, the 10-year-old narrated his ordeal to the shopkeeper and other locals present there. The boy also showed marks of injuries on his whole body.
The victim, who studied and lived at the same madarsa, said that the cleric brutally thrashed him with a stick on Friday, July 21. The cleric then locked him up in a room and tied his hands with a metal chain, which he secured with a small lock. The child remained locked up in a dingy room of the Madarsa for the next three days.
On July 23, Sunday, the accused cleric was busy preparing for Namaz. The child used the opportunity to escape the clutches of the Maulvi. He reached Rajouri where he narrated his ordeal to the locals, who, in turn, informed the Rajouri police and the Child Protection Unit of the brutal treatment meted out to the minor child.
The minor, who was a student at the Madarsa, said that he had tried to flee the institution twice in the past but each time his parents brought him back to the Madarsa. This time, when he came back, the cleric decided to punish him by thrashing him and chaining him so that he does not dare to run away again.
The boy further told the media that he previously went to a school but his parents took him out from there when he was in class six and sent him to the Madarsa.
Some locals shot a video of the boy and posted it online. Within no time, the video went viral on various social media platforms prompting the Legal cum Probation Officer Child Protection Services Rajouri, Adv Shivangi Kant Sudan, to take cognisance of the incident.
Adv Shivangi Kant approached the Rajouri police, who acted promptly and registered an FIR against the accused Maulvi and his Madarsa. Police sent the victim for medical examination after which he was shifted to a safe place under police protection.
Police have formed search teams to nab the cleric, who is currently on the run.
Accounts of such horrors have become quite common with madarsas. Last year, two minor boys, escaped from a madarsa in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh after they were assaulted by a Maulana and kept chained to prevent them from running away. According to reports the Maulana of Suffa Madintul Ulam Madarsa in Shivlar, Gosainganj, who was running the madarsa illegally, had not only kept the two boys captive by shackling them but also thrashed them with canes in the name of disciplining them.