Assam Couple On the Run After Scalding Their Minor House Help With Hot Water Arrested

A government doctor and his academician wife on the run after scalding their minor domestic help with hot water have been arrested from central Assam’s Nagaon, police said on Sunday.

Dibrugarh district police officials 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 Saturday night while 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.

Social activist and Dibrugarh CWC member Arpana Borah, who lodged the FIR, said : “The boy should be given justice. The arrests are the first step towards this end.”

Earlier, various organisations had protested and demanded action against the couple. On Sunday, a group of women staged a protest at the Dibrugarh police station to demand exemplary punishment for the accused.

According to a media report, Deori was suspended in 2006 as store incharge of AMCH on the charge of running a private nursing home in violation of government rules.