In Bengaluru's daycare, children were locked in bathrooms, made to sit in washing machines, water was poured on their mouths with a toilet jet; FIR against 5 women employees

A case of abuse of children aged 2-3 years has come to light at the day-care center running at the HAL campus of IT company Capgemini in Bengaluru. It is alleged that the children were locked in the bathroom when they cried. The children were made to sit in the drum of a front-loading washing machine, made to sit on the western toilet and water was poured into their mouths with a toilet jet. After the video surfaced, the police registered an FIR against five female caregivers. The matter came to light on Monday, when videos of the daycare went viral on WhatsApp and social media. After this, a complaint was lodged with the Child Helpline. The parents of the children are IT professionals, DCP Saidulu Adawath said, adding that the children coming to the daycare belong to professionals working on the campus, whom their parents used to drop here during duty. Both the parents and the officer were shocked to see the video. The way children were treated is very serious. The police are also probing whether the daycare centre was being run directly by Capgemini or if it was entrusted to an external agency on the company premises. The five women employees are being questioned. No accused has been arrested so far. The Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights has also taken cognizance of the matter. The commission will seek a report from the officials and conduct an inquiry at its own level. Capgemini said the safety of its employees and their families is its top priority. The company is fully cooperating with investigative agencies. As a precautionary measure, the Bengaluru-based on-campus day-care centre has been temporarily closed. The company is spread across more than 50 countries Capgemini is one of the largest IT companies in the world. It is headquartered in Paris, the capital of France. The company provides services related to software, cloud, artificial intelligence (AI), cyber security and consulting. It has offices in more than 50 countries. It employs about 3.5 lakh employees worldwide. It has large offices in several cities in India, including Bengaluru, Pune, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Gurugram, Noida and Kolkata.