Man who killed son with bat arrested

KOLKATA - A 45-year-old man was arrested in West Bengal’s Nadia district Sunday for beating to death his 11-year-old son with a cricket bat after the boy apparently misbehaved, police said.

Dasarath Haldar, a former army man, surrendered to the police in Nakashipara under Krishnanagar police station.

The decomposed body of Arghya Haldar was found Dec 9 from Haldar’s flat in Konnagar in Hooghly district by police after Haldar called up his estranged wife Phalguni and told her he had killed the boy.

“Find the body from my flat. Hurry up and find him,” Haldar told her, according to an an officer of Konnagar police station.

Haldar had taken the boy with him early this month and there was no trace of the two until he called up Phalguni.

Phalguni, who had been living separately for the past three years, had informed police about her missing son a day before she received the call.

“She then called us up to inform us about Haldar’s call. Then we searched his flat close to Falguni’s residence and found the body. The bat - with a smattering of blood on it - was found by the side of the body,” said the officer.

“We had been on Dasarath’s trail since then,” he said.

“He seems to have killed his son a few days before the body was discovered. The reason has to be ascertained. But it could be that it was not a planned murder, but done in a fit of anger,” said the officer.