Varanasi teacher booked over alleged abuse of five-year-old

A five-year-old in Varanasi was allegedly branded on their private parts with a hot metal knife for wetting their pants at a playschool. On July 24, the victim asked to use the toilet, but their teacher refused to let them at the Serene Sony Play School in the Akatha-Pandeypur area. The five-year-old ended up wetting their pants. According to the victim’s father’s police complaint, the teacher then took the minor to another room, heated a knife on a gas stove until it was red-hot, and burned the five-year-old’s private parts.

The child’s father, advocate Kesari Jaiswal, said the child came home in severe pain. The victim’s mother noticed a blister. When they asked what happened, the five-year-old named the teacher, Preeti Kushwaha, and said she beat and threatened them with worse consequences if he spoke up or made the same mistake again. The next day, the parents went to the school principal and management. Instead of help, they said they were met with denial and threats.

The family then went to the Lalpur-Pandeypur police station. There, an FIR was filed against the teacher, principal, and school management under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for causing hurt, using dangerous means and criminal intimidation. The school reportedly refused to speak with the parents and did not start an immediate internal inquiry.

However, the official medical report from DDU District Hospital reportedly does not mention a burn injury, which police have noted as they continue their investigation. While the inquiry continues, counselling for the child and a State-wide review of play-school safety protocols are already underway.