Five boys studying at a madrasa were arrested Friday for the sexual assault and murder of a peer after the latter’s body was found dumped in an abandoned water tank in Odisha, police said.
According to police sources, the victim was murdered after he threatened to “expose” the sexual assault he had allegedly been enduring at the hands of the suspects for the last six months.
The incident allegedly occurred on September 2, and a case was registered on September 3.
“The victim was subjected to unnatural sexual act and torture for the past six months. He threatened to reveal it to his parents. Days before his murder, there was an attempt to kill him by pushing him into the tank but he managed to come out with some head injuries. The victim didn’t reveal it to the teachers,” Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Subash Chandra Panda told The Indian Express.
According to the police, on September 2, the victim was sexually assaulted by two suspects before he was murdered. The next day, after his parents reported their son missing, the police eventually found the body in the water tank.
Panda said although it initially appeared to be an accident, investigation showed that the victim had been “physically tortured and killed”.
“The boy was strangled to death by the prime accused and his four associates,” Panda said.
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The suspects were taken into custody and produced before a court. They have now been sent to a juvenile home.
In its FIR, police have invoked murder charges (Section 103) under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and provisions of the Protection of Children against Sexual Offences Act.
Asked whether the police would probe the madrasa, they would issue a notice if anything turns up in its investigation. Meanwhile, the institution, where 16 minors study, has been closed since the incident.
