BJP worker Mahadeb Pramanik who had beaten up a 10-year-old boy for refusing to chant “Jai Shri Ram” was arrested from his hideout near Santipur in Nadia district on Wednesday evening.

The Class IV student, Mahadev Sharma, had to be hospitalised with multiple injuries. The assault happened when the boy was passing by Pramanik’s tea stall at Phulia in Nadia district on Monday.

A senior officer of Ranaghat police district said: “We arrested the accused. He is being interrogated now. He will be produced in the additional chief judicial magistrate’s court in Ranaghat tomorrow (Thursday) morning.”

A case was started against him by the police on the basis of a complaint lodged by the child’s father. The BJP worker was booked for wrongful restraint, voluntarily causing grievous hurt and under relevant sections of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.

All the charges are non-bailable, a Santipur police officer said.

Pramanik’s wife Mithu, a local Mahila Morcha leader, said: “The administration has been trying to blow the case out of proportion for political interests. We will fight the case legally.”