Bengal school students threaten private tutor, demand ₹50K as revenge
A class 12 student, the key accused, had bought a pistol from an engineering student for ₹30,000.
Police on Thursday arrested a class 12 and class 9 student from Sonamukhi in Bengal’s Bankura district for threatening a teacher and demanding ₹50,000.
An improvised pistol and three cartridges were seized from the students at the time of the arrest. They were later produced before a special court that sent them to a home for juvenile delinquents till August 14.
The class 12 student, the prime accused, told police that he wanted to take revenge on Bipul Biswas, an English teacher of Dhulai RKM Vidyamandir who also gives private tuitions in Sonamukhi.
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Police also arrested Dipan Chatterjee, from whom the class 12 student purchased the firearm, as well as another class 9 student. Chatterjee had recently completed a course in engineering.
All the students, who are from the same school, were sent to welfare homes while Chatterjee was sent to judicial custody for seven days after he was produced in Bishnupur court.
“The key accused paid Chatterjee ₹30,000 to get hold of the firearm. He borrowed the money for the purpose,” said a police officer of Sonamukhi police station on conditions of anonymity.
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On Thursday morning, the students telephoned Biswas on his mobile phone and said he would be killed if he did not pay up within half an hour. They said they had placed a camera inside Biswas’s toilet and recorded embarrassing videos of members of his family. They threatened to make the video public.
“The students have been booked under Arms Act and Section 506 of Indian Penal Code (punishment for criminal intimidation),” said Sukhendu Hira, superintendent of police, Bankura district.
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To convince Biswas, the students made an audio tape in which they repeated their threats and took a photograph of the pistol. They transferred these files to a memory card and placed the card inside a matchbox.
The students left the matchbox outside the entrance of Biswas’s residence and asked him to collect it.
Confused by the call, Biswas went to Sonamukhi police station. Police tracked the number from which Biswas was called and the students were arrested within a couple of hours.
“The class 12 student attended my classes. I don’t know why they did this,” said Biswas, who lives in a rented house with his wife and child.