The man accused of verbally abusing a six-year-old child in a recording that went viral recently was granted bail of R1 000 at the Chatsworth Magistrate’s Court on Monday, 6 February. The accused, Ashish Girdhari (30), handed himself over to the Chatsworth FCS Unit on Tuesday, 31 January.
He initially appeared in court on Tuesday and was remanded to Westville Prison for a formal bail application, yesterday.
Girdhari was given bail on the condition that he does not contact the child at school or any witnesses in the case. He is also not allowed in the Chatsworth precinct. The magistrate said that it was a heinous offence but the accused was given bail due to the fact that the child is now in a safe place. The case was remanded to 6 March 2023 for further investigation.
Meanwhile, a press briefing was held at Child Welfare Chatsworth where the president, Logan Naidoo, said that they want to know who was responsible for initially distributing the recording on social media which has the picture of the child.
He said: “Our organisation is here to protect children, when we hear of such things, we do not sit back. We interviewed the biological mother, biological father and the mother’s boyfriend who purportedly used vulgar language on the child. We also conducted home visits. I directed my team to open charges against the accused.
“We want to know whose device was used to record the incident as well as the person who distributed it. We cannot listen to what was told by the mother but need SAPS to investigate this and subpoena the records from the service provider. I cannot take what she said for granted because she was not in control of that innocent child. We must not only deal with the perpetrator but everyone who is associated with this crime, including the others who can be heard in the recording.
“We are having challenges with the court and SAPS. We were told by the court that there is no need for us to worry about this issue as it is not prosecutable. We are passionate about making sure that children who are at risk are protected by us. There are thousands of children out there who may be subjected to the same abuse and if we deal with this matter in a proper way, it will assist in making communities aware of what they should do.”
Social worker, Jessica Khanyile, said that they will continue to investigate until they come up with a permanent plan that will work in favour of the child.
