GUWAHATI The Assam police have arrested a doctor couple in Guwahati for abusing a 4-year-old girl, who child rights activists said was their illegally adopted daughter.
Psychiatrist Sangeeta Datta was caught from Meghalaya’s Ri-Bhoi district a day after her husband Walliul Islam, a gastrointestinal and advanced general surgeon, was held from his residence in the Manipuri Basti locality of Guwahati.
The police station concerned registered a case against the couple under sections of the Indian Penal Code related to attempt to murder (307), voluntarily causing grievous hurt (325), wrongful restraint (341), and acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention (34).
Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice Act was also slapped against the couple. The section pertains to “any person having control of the child, assaults, abandons, abuses, or wilfully neglects the child”.
Miguel Das Queah, a child rights defender and the founder-chairman of the Universal Team for Social Action and Help, said there were multiple complaints against the couple but there was no evidence until one of their neighbours approached the police on May 5 with photos of the child bound to a post on the terrace in the heat.
“I had requested the Kamrup Metro Child Welfare Committee on the matter weeks back, urging them to conduct a welfare check,” he said, adding that the girl bore injury and burnt marks on her private parts.
As the photos of the child— her face was masked to protect her identity— went viral, Assam’s Director-General of Police, Gyanendra Pratap Singh directed Guwahati’s Commissioner of Police, Diganta Barah to take cognisance of the matter.
Police said the couple’s domestic help, Lakshmi was detained. “Interrogation revealed that she was asked to tie up the minor girl for being disobedient and naughty,” a police officer said.
In a social media post before her arrest, Dr. Datta denied torturing the child.
