Putrajaya District Police Chief ACP Rosly Hassan said police were still tracking down another former female worker who is said to be still at large after photographs of the two abused babies were spread on social media yesterday.
He said the 27-year-old female nursery owner was detained at the nursery here at 2pm while the 21-year-old former worker was detained in Kajang, Selangor, at 4pm.
He said the case involved a 13-month-old baby and a baby girl, aged four months, whose mouth was gagged with a diaper cloth.
Rosly said the owner of the nursery had sent the photographs of the baby boy with bruise marks on his face after being slapped, to his mother through the WhatsApp application.
“The WhatsApp (message) was sent to the baby’s mother, who is a civil servant, at 4.10pm on May 25, and at 8.42pm, she (the complainant) received another WhatsApp from a nursery employee informing her that her son had been abused by the owner of the nursery,” he said.
Rosly said police had received a report from the nursery owner at 5.40pm on Tuesday after receiving the WhatsApp photographs of the abused children at the nursery.
“The nursery owner suspected the offence was committed by her two former employees, both in their early 20s, who had run away on Saturday before they made the photograph of the baby girl who was gagged go viral on the Internet,” he said.
Rosly said earlier, police also received a report from the baby’s mother saying there were bruise marks on her son’s face due to abuse.
“Police also received a report from the nursery’s former employees at about 4pm last Wednesday (June 1), denying that they had abused the children and claiming the owner of the nursery was the one who did it,” he said.
Meanwhile, the owner of the nursery claimed the report of the abuse of the two babies spread on the social media was an act of sabotage by her two employees who had worked three months for her.
He said the Social Welfare Department had visited the premises two days ago to investigate the matter and the nursery was operating as usual as it met with the stipulated regulations including the certification by the Permata Negara programme.
— BERNAMA