Rangaswami, who was trying to intervene in a minor tiff between his son and Harish over a game, assaulted the latter on October 18. As his mother was away that day, Harish was severely injured and had to suffer alone with with a bleeding ear and a urinary problem. By the time his mother took him to hospital, it was too late. He was taken to the All India Institute of Speech and Hearing where the doctors declared that the boy would be hard of hearing on his left ear following a blood clot.

Samata, a women's organisation in the city, has taken up the issue and a complaint in this regard has been registered with the police. According to Radha, legal advisor of the women's forum, the police had initially hesitated to file the case. Elaborating on the sequence of events, she said that the boy and his motherwere in a state of shock and the ``delay in filing the complaint was made a ruse for non-filing of the complaint''.

However, only when Samata took up the case, a complaint was filed with the Devaraja police. According to CFTRI workers, the boy was abused in front of his classmates and he was hurt more by the abuses than the physical assault.

The boy had confided with the Samata activists that the joint secretary was abusing his mother in filthy language. He added that he had even tried to contact the director over the issue.

The CFTRI employees have taken up the issue with their authorities for appropriate action.