Teacher charged with boy’s murder arrested

The police on Wednesday arrested Virendra Pratap Singh (40), the absconding teacher who had killed her 12-year-old brother Pushpendra Kumar on January 2 and had threatened to kill her too, reports Peeyush Khandelwal.

Fourteen-year-old Puja Kumar is relieved and might start attending school soon.

HT Image

The police on Wednesday arrested Virendra Pratap Singh (40), the absconding teacher who had killed her 12-year-old brother Pushpendra Kumar on January 2 and had threatened to kill her too. Fearing for her life, Puja’s parents had stopped sending her to school.

Police said Singh was going towards Puja’s house in Sahibabad when he was arrested. “He was coming to kill my daughter but the police nabbed him. After my son, he wanted to kill my daughter too,” said a relieved Ravi Shanker Kumar, the victim’s father.

Singh said he killed the boy in a fit of rage. “I killed Pushpender after his parents scolded me for making advances on Puja. I killed the child at around noon at my residence with a kitchen knife and dumped his body inside the bed box,” the accused told HT.

Singh had reportedly divorced his wife a few years ago and was reportedly obsessed with the girl.

The police tracked his mobile phone through electronic surveillance and nabbed him after he was located near Mohan Nagar area. “We found it hard to trace him as the landlord had not completed tenant verification formalities and the school had not maintained his personal records,” SP (City) Anant Dev said.