Bhubaneswar: Police arrested five minor students of a madrasa in Nayagarh district for allegedly killing a 12-year-old boy from the same institution and dumping his body in a septic tank, police said on Sunday.
According to Nayagarh Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Subhas Chandra Panda, the incident occurred on September 2 at a madrasa within the Ranpur police station limits in Nayagarh district. The police registered a case on September 3, and the five accused minors, aged 12 to 15 years, were taken into custody on Saturday.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the victim, from the Badamba area in Cuttack district, had allegedly threatened to expose senior students for sexually abusing junior students. The victim had reportedly been raped by a senior inmate of the madrasa for the past six months, with an earlier attempt on his life on August 31, the ASP said.
Panda noted that, although the incident initially appeared to be an accident after the victim’s body was recovered from the septic tank, further evidence indicated he was physically tortured and killed.
“It was learned that the victim was sodomized by two senior boys, including the 15-year-old main accused, before being killed and his body dumped in the septic tank,” the ASP said.
The boy was strangled to death by the prime accused and his four associates. “All five were taken into custody and produced before a court,” the ASP said, adding that a case was registered under Section 103 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for murder and provisions of the POCSO Act.
Three boys were charged with murder, one with murder and under the POCSO Act, and another solely under the POCSO Act. The accused were transferred to a juvenile correctional facility in Angul.
