Domestic help accused of injuring minor with hot iron fined ₹500

Though there is no eyewitness, no one other than accused could have inflicted the burn marks. AR RAHANE, Girgaum metropolitan magistrate

MUMBAI: Three years after Raju Paswan, a domestic help at a Malabar Hill apartment was accused of inflicting burn injuries to his employers’ two-year-old child with a hot iron, a metropolitan court has convicted him of endangering the child’s life and asked him to pay a fine of ₹500.

In April 2015, the child’s mother had identified triangularly-shaped injuries on her daughter’s chest and told the court that Paswan admitted to ironing clothes at their home at the time of the incident.

The prosecution also examined Dr Trupti Choudhary of Nair Hospital where the child was admitted after the injury. In her testimony, Choudhary said the injuries were “possible due to contact with a hot iron.” While she denied that the injuries could be self-inflicted, the doctor told the court it was possible that it could have been caused accidentally. Girgaum metropolitan magistrate AR Rahane, in his order, noted: “Though there is no eyewitness to the incident, no one other than the accused could have inflicted the burn marks.”

The prosecution could not prove whether Paswan’s act was intentional or an accident.

The magistrate said Paswan committed the act in a rash manner without the intention to hurt anyone. Paswan, in his statement before the court, said, “I was asked to iron the clothes. I refused because I was tired. I did not give burn marks to her daughter. Still, her husband began to beat me.” Paswan was previously charged under section 324 of IPC which prescribes a maximum punishment of three years while section 337 of IPC prescribes a a maximum fine of ₹500.