Minor with autism allegedly assaulted at therapy centre

The incident came to light after the Director of Public Health, Dr G. Srinivas Rao, responded to a video tweeted by the victim’s uncle

A two-and-a-half-year-old boy was allegedly assaulted at a therapy centre in Karkhana during his autism therapy sessions.

While a complaint was registered at the Karkhana Police Station on September 2, the alleged horrific incident came to light on Tuesday, after Director of Public Health Dr G. Srinivas Rao responded to a video which the victim’s uncle, who sought the intervention of the authorities, had tweeted. The video purportedly showed injuries on the victim’s torso.

“We filed an FIR against Pinnacle therapists, sir please see below video my nephew is a victim of child abuse. Pinnacle Therapy was supposed to help my nephew with speech therapy, occupational therapy & behavioural therapy,” Murali Krishna tweeted, tagging the Twitter handles of Information Technology Minister K.T. Rama Rao, Hyderabad City Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar and the official Hyderabad City Police handle.

According to the FIR, the victim was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The victim’s mother decided to take the victim for therapy sessions to Pinnacle Centre on the advice of doctors. She paid an instalment of ₹56,000 for therapy for four months. Another final instalment of the same amount was paid a month later.

The complainant stated that on September 2, after the completion of the two-hour session, when she was on her way back from Pinnacle Centre, the victim was crying incessantly. It was only after they reached home, and when she was changing the victim’s clothes, that noticed nail marks on the victim’s body, which she said were a result of pinching. She went to the therapy centre and demanded to know how the victim was injured, and asked for CCTV footage. The administration allegedly refused to share any information.

She then approached the Karkhana police who registered a case under section 323 of the Indian Penal Code and section 77 of the Juvenile Justice Act. An investigation is in progress.

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