Child panel serves notice on Bhupinder Hooda, MLAs Kuldeep Vats, Shakuntla Khatak

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 9

Taking suo motu congnisance of “harassment, torture and public shaming” of a child at a Congress protest outside the Haryana Vidhan Sabha on August 20, the Haryana State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (HSCPCR) today issued show-cause notices to Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda and MLAs Kuldeep Vats and Shakuntla Khatak.

A child sitting on a rickshaw was part of the Congress MLAs’ protest on the alleged paper leak and the hike in fuel prices on August 20. The next day, the BJP had condemned the move in the Legislative Assembly.

In the notice, HSCPCR Chairperson Jyoti Bainda said the acts of the Congress leaders “amounted to cruelty, harassment and public shaming of the child”. She noted that to gain political mileage, the Congress leaders made an 8-year-old boy sit in a rickshaw “forcefully”.

Bainda said the acts of the Congress leaders “attract stringent criminal proceedings under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of the Children) Act, 2015, and the Indian Penal Code and other relevant laws.”