Cops arrest brutal Bengal tutor

Puja Singh, the accused private tutor who had gone into hiding with her husband Rohit Singh following her brutal torture on a toddler at the latter’s house in Lake Town on July 22, was arrested by the Bidhannagar city police from south Kolkata on Friday evening. A police team in plain clothes traced her in her relative’s flat at Rasbehari Avenue, where she had taken shelter. Her hus- band, however, managed to escape.

Additional deputy commissioner of police Debashish Dhar confirmed of Puja’s arrest on charges of 308 ( attempt to commit culpable homicide), 325 ( causing grievous hurt) and 379 ( theft) of the Indian Penal Code. Producing Puja at the Bidhhanagar court on Saturday, the police will appeal for her remand to catch her husband.

Though the police sent two teams in Orissa and Bihar in search of Puja, the cops learnt of her movement after tracking the tower network of her father- in- law Deb Mohan Singh’s cellphone, according to sources. Expressing satisfaction over Puja’s arrest the victim’s father Sanjay Agarwal said, “We want exemplary punishment.”

Child development and social welfare minister Shashi Panja praised the police action.

“They acted promptly. I spoke to the mother during the day to enquire about the child’s well- being,” she said. Meanwhile, a Class 8 student was injured after he was beaten black and blue by a Hindi teacher in a private school in Howrah on Thursday afternoon. The accused teacher, Joy Prakash Singh, is absconding.

He beat the 13- year- old student with a metal scale to punish him for talking to his friends while he was taking the class. As the victim fell ill, the school authorities informed his family at D. N. Mukherjee Road.