The Purba Medinipur police Sunday arrested the owner of a school for allegedly harassing Kolkata-based singer Lagnajita Chakraborty.

The accused has been identified as Mehboob Mallick.

Chakraborty complained that the accused heckled her for singing devotional songs and asked her to sing a ‘secular song’ instead. The singer had filed a complaint in this regard at the Bhagwanpur police station in Purba Medinipur on Saturday.

In her complaint, Chakraborty said, “The program started at 7 pm. It went on smoothly from 7 pm to 7.45 pm. After the first three songs, I was given a proper reception. At 7.45 pm, I finished singing the seventh song of my song list. I was interacting with the audience before moving to the eighth song. That’s when the incident happened.”

The singer alleged that she had sung the song ‘Jago Maa’ from Devi Chowdhurani. Moments later, Mallick came up on the stage and tried to beat her up. However, others present caught him and took him off the stage. The singer also said that Mallick kept insulting her.

“When I began the ‘Joy Maa’ song, Mallick said, ‘Enough is enough, now you sing something secular’. In fact, not just verbal abuse, I also went through physical harassment during the show,” the complainant said in her statement.

Chakraborty said she left the program after this incident and went to the local police station to file the complaint.

Mitun Kumar Dey, Superintendent of Police (acting), Purba Medinipur, said, “The incident happened when Chakraborty was performing at a school. We have assured her that we will cooperate in every way. Along with this, we are also investigating whether there was any negligence on the part of the police in this incident.”