In a shocking incident that came to light on Saturday, a twelve-year-old boy was chained for attempting to run away from the madarasa he had been admitted to, two years ago, after the death of his parents.
In these two years, Babu Mehboob made several attempts to run away from the hostel of the Madarasa-e-Arabia in Medak, but was brought back by his uncle, ostensibly “for the sake of his future”. Mehboob has a stammering problem and was not a quick learner like other students in the madarasa. This prompted his runaway attempts.
On Saturday, the boy again made a bid to escape from the hostel with chains on his legs and landed in the compound of the Senior Civil Judge’s house, adjoining the hostel. The Medak police said, “We found that he was forcibly confined at the hostel with his legs chained since the past one week. He developed a wound in the leg due to friction caused by the chain.” The teachers said that they imposed the punishment only because the boy’s uncle asked them to do so. Mehboob’s uncle defended himself saying that he was concerned about his future.
The Medak police have registered a case under Sec. 342 of the IPC and Sec. 23 of the Juvenile Justice Act against the two teachers for wrongful confinement and torture.