Marathon boy’s coach charged with torture

THE coach of a six-year-old Indian boy, who ran a marathon last year in an attempt to set a world record, was arrested yesterday and charged with torturing the boy, police said.

Biranchi Das was arrested after the boy’s mother said she discovered scars on the body of her son, Budhia Singh, according to police official Sarat Chandra Sahu in Bhubaneshwar, the capital of the eastern state of Orissa.

Singh became an instant celebrity in record-crazy India when he ran 40 miles at the age of four — a feat that also drew immediate, widespread condemnation from medical officials and child rights activists.