Bhubaneswar, Aug 9 - A man was arrested in Cuttack district of Orissa for branding his two children with a hot electric iron as punishment for not studying, police said Sunday.

Pratap Das, 35, resident of Gopinathpur village in Cuttack, about 45 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, allegedly took the iron and burnt his children - Dipali, 9, and Jagannath, 8,- Saturday after he found them playing outside the house.

The children have burn injuries on their back.

'Villagers heard the children screaming and rescued them from the clutches of their father. They also brought the matter to the notice of the police,' police official Bidyut Chandra Panda told IANS.

'We have arrested Das on the basis of a written complaint filed by a village woman,' he said.

Das, who has confessed to the crime, said he wanted to punish the children as they were not concentrating on their studies.

'The children are being treated in the hospital,' he said.