Rahul’s mother at police station. Picture by Gopal Senapati

Sumitra Singh, the mother of the nine-year-old boy who was made to spend all night inside a gunny bag with hands and feet tied and mouth taped by his employer, lodged a complaint against shop owner Om Prakash Agarwal at Malipanchghara police station in Howrah on Tuesday.

Sumitra said on Monday she had been asked by the police to sign on a paper that had something written in Bengali, drafted by a clerk at the police station.

“I thought it was a complaint against my son Rahul’s employer and I put my thumb impression on the paper,” Sumitra said on Tuesday.

“Later, my neighbour told me it was not a complaint. That is why I lodged a general diary today,” she added.

Metro obtained a copy of the paper on which Sumitra put her thumb imprint on Monday. The paper contains a declaration of amicable settlement of all disputes between Rahul’s parents and Agarwal.

An officer of Malipanchghara police station said: “We told the woman to lodge a complaint against the owner on Monday. But she said they were not in a position to fight him in court. Now that a complaint has been lodged, we have started a case under IPC sections 342 (wrongful confinement) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt).” If convicted, Agarwal may be jailed up to a year and/or fined up to Rs 1,000.

According to the complaint, when Rahul refused to fetch water for his employer on Sunday, Agarwal and another employee, Sandip Singh, slapped him, tied his hands and feet and put him in a gunny bag with his mouth taped.