A Dhaka court on Friday sent Sharmin Academy’s admin officer Pabitra Kumar Barua to jail in a case filed over the recent child abuse at Sharmin Academy, a school located in Nayapaltan area in the capital Dhaka.

Dhaka metropolitan magistrate Aminul Islam Junaid passed the order as the police produced Pabitra before the court and pleaded to place him on a five-day remand, said Dhaka Metropolitan Police prosecution division’s sub-inspector Rokonuzzaman.

The court also set Tuesday as the date for hearing the remand petition, he added.

Earlier, at about 4:00am on Friday, the police, on information, conducted a drive in Mirpur area and arrested Pabitra from his relative’s house after the four-year-old victim’s mother filed the case on January 22, said DMP assistant commissioner for Motijheel zone Hussain Muhammad Farabi.

The victim’s mother filed the case with the Paltan police station against Pabitra and his wife Sharmin Zaman, also the head teacher of the school, days after a video clip showing the duo abusing the student physically and mentally went viral on social media, said the case’s investigating officer, sub-inspector Nur Islam.

Farabi on Friday afternoon said that the police were working to arrest Sharmin while legal proceedings against Pabitra were under way.

The case was filed under section 70 of the Children Act, 2013.

According to the law, it is a punishable criminal offence in Bangladesh to mistreat a child in ways that cause physical or psychological harm when that child is under someone’s care.

In the video clip, a woman in a pink sari was seen repeatedly slapping and rebuking the child by making the victim sit on a sofa while a man was threating the child with a stapler in his hand.

The incident took place at Sharmin Academy on Masjid Road in Nayapaltan area on January 18, said the police, mentioning that the victim was studying in the Play Class at the school and the child was about four years old.

A DMP press release said that the child suffered head, neck and ear pain after the incident and he was first treated at Nayapaltan Islami Bank Hospital and later at Dhaka Medical College Hospital. 

Farabi said that the duo, seen in the video clip, were Pabitra and Sharmin and they had gone into hiding since the video spread on social media.

The video triggered widespread outrage across social media, leading to strong condemnation and demands that those responsible in the child abuse must be brought to justice.