Man held for abducting, killing minor boy in northwest Delhi

NEW DELHI: A man was today arrested for allegedly abducting and murdering an 11-year-old boy, whose body was recovered in bushes near Bhalswa Dairy, with police suspecting that the minor was sexually assaulted before being killed.

The Class IV student yesterday had gone out with another boy from the neighbourhood.

He used to stay with his family near Haiderpur Canal in northwest Delhi's Shalimar Bagh, police said.

A man met them on the way and asked him to get some things to him.

The boy got him those things and then the man asked the victim to accompany him, the police said.

The boy went along with the man and his friend who was playing at a distance saw him going.

He alerted the boy's family and other neighbours who started looking for the boy.

The police were also informed but the boy could not be found, they said.

On the basis of the man's description provided by the boy's friend, he was caught, the police said.

The man confessed to the crime and said he had killed the boy and dumped his body near the bushes in Bhalswa Dairy, the police claimed.

After which, the boy's body was recovered near the bushes today. It is suspected that the accused, who was inebriated, sodomised the boy before killing him, the police said.

Police have arrested the man and registered a case under relevant sections of IPC and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act against him for abducting and killing the boy before sexually assaulting him.