The teacher of a reputed English medium school, who had earlier been accused of demanding a laptop from a student’s father in bribe, was arrested by the officials of the Shakespeare Sarani police station. Sanjay Smart, the accused teacher, had sought a laptop from Partha Pratim Banerjee whose son studies in Class 4 of the school. Mr Banerjee had engaged Mr Smart as a private tutor for his son in 2008.
Soonafter, Mr Smart had allegedly started asking for various goods, including a laptop. When Mr Banerjee refused, he allegedly threatened to stop the child’s promotion. Scared, Mr Banerjee gifted Mr Smart a second-hand desktop. This, however, did not satisfy the teacher.
The child was not promoted for two consecutive years, in 2008-09 and 2009-10 sessions. Mr Banerjee, a resident of Charu Market area, then finally lodged a complaint against Mr Smart with the Shakespeare Sarani police station on April 3 alleging that he had manipulated his child’s results as his demand for a laptop was not met.
Based on the complaint, Mr Smart was arrested on Tuesday.
He was charged with extortion, criminal intimidation under IPC. It may be noted that earlier the Calcutta high court had rejected his prayer for anticipatory bail.
Mr Smart has been remanded to police custody for 10 days.