India police arrest one for alleged child abuse at Capgemini daycare campus

BENGALURU: Indian police have arrested one woman and are investigating four other suspects who worked at a childcare facility at the Indian unit of French IT services firm Capgemini following allegations of child abuse there, police said on Friday.

The investigation was launched after police received information and videos that they said showed children being subjected to physical and mental abuse at the daycare centre in Bengaluru, according to a complaint registered with the police on June 29 that was reviewed by Reuters.

The complaint was registered after information was received through a children’s helpline and videos of crying children were shared via WhatsApp.

The complaint alleges that staff at the daycare centre operating on Capgemini’s Bengaluru campus physically abused and intimidated children in their care, including by threatening crying children that they would be put in a washing machine and subjecting them to other forms of mistreatment.

Capgemini said the daycare facility was managed by an external service provider and it had been temporarily closed while authorities investigate the allegations.

Bengaluru police said the daycare facility was managed by a firm called Little Scholars. Reuters could not immediately reach the firm for comment.

The arrested woman could not be reached for comment as she is in police custody. The other four people were under investigation, the police said, without providing additional details.

Capgemini India is a unit of France-based Capgemini SE, an IT consulting and outsourcing firm, with more than 420,000 employees globally and operations in over 50 countries. It provides cloud, artificial intelligence, engineering and digital services to clients across a number of industries.