Police arrest teacher who went viral for allegedly abusing child in Dhaka school

Bangla Press Desk: Police have arrested Pabitra Kumar Barua, a teacher allegedly involved in the abuse of a child at a school in Dhaka’s Paltan.
He was arrested from Dhaka’s Mirpur area early on Friday morning, said Mohammad Harun Or Rashid, deputy commissioner of the Motijheel Division of the police.
“Pabitra is the prime suspect in the case, while the other suspect – his wife Sharmin Zaman – is still absconding. We are trying to arrest her,” he said.
Pabitra was hiding out at the home of a relative in Mirpur, a Paltan police official said.
A 4-year-old child was abused by a teacher just seven days after enrolling at the “Sharmin Academy” school.
A video of the incident went viral, sparking widespread backlash. The child's mother filed a case over the incident with Paltan Police Station on Thursday.
School teacher Pabitra and his wife Sharmin were named as the suspects in the case. Police said the accused had fled following the incident after closing the school.
The CCTV video, which went viral on Facebook around Wednesday, shows a woman dragging a child wearing a school uniform into a room. She begins slapping the child from the moment she enters the room. She can then be seen speaking to another person sitting in the room, appearing to make an accusation.
The woman is seen pinning the child down on a sofa and repeatedly slapping and scolding him. Then a man can be seen moving towards the child with a stapler in hand. He can be seen pretending to staple the child’s mouth shut. He also repeatedly signalled the child to stop using his hands.
At one point in the video, the man leaves the room before coming back in and choking the child on the sofa.
The video states that the incident occurred on Jan 18 around 1pm. The four minute 13 second video inspired massive backlash, calls for the punishment of those involved, and for guardians to be more aware of how their children are being treated in school.
BP/TI