Kolkata, Mar 12: Priyanka Mullick, a 33-year-old woman was arrested on Sunday for torturing her six-year-old son by locking him in a room, slashing him with a blade and yanking off clumps of hair.
The child, who studies in Class I at a boarding school, was rescued by police from the locked room in a rented house on Northern Avenue, following a complaint by neighbours.
His mother Priyanka Mullick, who works for a private firm, was not in the house. She was arrested when she returned in the evening.
“We broke the lock to bring out the boy from a ground-floor room. There were cuts all over his body and clumps of hair had been uprooted from his head. It seems the boy was being tortured regularly. We took him to RG Kar hospital,” said a senior officer of Chitpur police station.
The boy had come home from school about 10 days ago and was being tortured since, according to neighbours.
Priyanka had separated from her husband Shyamal about eight months ago. He had moved to a house in Paik Para –Kolkata.
Priyanka was charged under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons and means) and 342 (wrongful confinement) of the IPC along with sections under the juvenile act. The charges carry a maximum prison term of three years.
Residents of the area said Priyanka used to leave home in the morning after locking up the child and return only in the evening.
“She did not even feed the boy in the afternoon. After returning home in the evening, she would beat the child till late in the night. The boy used to cry. An NGO is looking after the child.
