An eight-year-old was accused of brutally assaulting a six-year-old kindergarten student at a government school in Panchkula on October 28. The boy was granted bail by the Juvenile Justice Board.
The Board directed all the social media platforms to remove videos and photographs of the incident after the victim’s father filed a petition seeking protection of his daughter’s identity.
The boy reportedly entrapped a six-year-old girl in an empty classroom. He told her that her father was in the classroom and then lured her inside, where he subjected her to a brutal assault, pulling her hair, beating her, and striking her with a brick.
The young girl was discovered unconscious with severe injuries, including facial fractures and nasal fractures, which required urgent hospitalisation. Following the incident, the boy was taken for a psychiatric evaluation.
In a recent legal update, the Panchkula Juvenile Justice Board approved the boy's release on bail.
This decision followed an undertaking submitted by his parents, who pledged to restrict his phone usage and ensure he receives regular professional counselling and behavioural therapy.
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The boy’s counsel, Manbir Singh Rathi, argued that the boy had no previous criminal record and keeping him in custody could hurt his education, academic progress and overall development.
Varsha Pant from Newsgram connected with a psychiatrist. Dr Rohith Reddy Palugula is a consultant psychiatrist specialising in child and adolescent psychiatry. He is based in Hyderabad, India.
Dr. Rohith explained that the child’s behaviour was not justified, but there must have been underlying reasons behind the action.
He said, “I would definitely not say that he must have been criminal-minded in doing such things, but it's unfortunate, again, to witness all this. So, we can't really blame the child over there, as there are a lot of things that come into the picture here.”
Dr. Rohit said that the child clearly manipulated the victim because the crime was well thought out; he had a plan and intention. However, to truly understand his motive, we need to understand his background.
He said, “We can't really blame the child for whatever he was planning or whatever happened, but we definitely have to take into consideration the behaviour he displayed. So, we can't pinpoint his psychological condition based on this incident alone.
“However, generally, when a child is violent or behaves in such a manner, we need to understand their background. We need a proper history of how he behaves at school, at home, and socially. We have to understand his behaviour in a social context and how he interacts with society.”
The parents will provide the child with counselling, guidance and a supportive home environment. They are committed to making sure the child attends all counselling sessions and complies with any rehabilitation steps advised by the appropriate authority to help him understand the consequences of his actions.
Dr. Rohith also discussed the psychological reasoning behind the child’s behaviour.
He said, “In a psychological evaluation, we have to see all the domains of how the kid is. Number one, we can talk about coping mechanisms... Number two, there would be something called conduct disorder. So, we can't comment on it with one incident.”
He also explained about another thing called intermittent explosive disorder, which is the amount of anger outbursts that usually comes in a fraction of seconds, and it lasts for a few minutes, or maybe for an hour.
"Kids learn coping behaviours by observing elders and people around them. They mimic these actions to manage anger, creating learned behaviours that we must evaluate through their full history,” he explained.
Dr. Rohith was asked about measures that schools and other institutions should take to prevent such violence, and what role parents and teachers should play in identifying early warning signs.
"School is the primary place where children can be screened for mental health problems because the number of hours they spend there is greater. If they are screened, that will give us a higher probability of intervening early.
Not all adamant or hyperactive kids have ADHD, and not all kids with conduct problems have conduct disorder.”
“Qualified teachers have the capacity to understand child psychology and differentiate normal behaviour from abnormal behaviour. If a teacher finds a kid having violent behaviour, they can forward the child to the school's mental health counsellor, who can then refer the kid to a clinical psychologist or a psychiatrist for intervention. School plays an important role, and apart from that, the parents also play an important role," he added.
The boy was produced before the board on Saturday and was later sent to an observation home in Ambala.