A government doctor and his academician wife on the run after throwing hot water on their minor domestic help have been arrested from central Assam’s Nagaon, police said on September 6.
Dibrugarh district police said that Siddhi Prasad Deuri, a doctor at the Assam Medical College and Hospital in Dibrugarh, and his wife Mitali Konwar, principal of Moran College, were arrested on September 5 night while they were travelling by a car from New Jalpaiguri in West Bengal.
The couple was on the run since the incident came to light on August 29.
“Deuri poured piping hot water on the 12-year-old boy when he was asleep in their house in Dibrugarh on August 27. Deuri’s wife looked on and did not take the seriously injured boy to a doctor or hospital for treatment,” the police officials said.
The Dibrugarh district police tweeted: “Based on an FIR received on August 31 about the inhuman treatment of a child employed as a domestic help, accused Dr Siddhi Prasad Deuri and Mitali Konwar have been arrested. The couple was absconding but was arrested with the help of Nagaon police.”
The incident came to light when District Child Welfare Committee (DCWC) rescued the boy on August 29 after getting a video clip from an anonymous source. The DCWC reported to the police and took the boy in its care.
Police registered a case under the Child and Adolescent Labour Prohibition Act and Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act and launched a probe.
The accused, however, absconded when the police had asked them to report at the area police station.
