Cops resort to lathicharge against crowd

RAJKOT: City police had to resort to lathicharge after a huge crowd gathered at the police commissioner office campus on Sunday to protest against the detention of seven family members of a 12-year-old missing boy, who cops suspect was the same whose beheaded body was found.

However, the missing boy Ajay Rathod alias Samosu, who had gone missing from his house in Kubaliapura locality of Rajkot on Saturday, was traced in Atkot.

Suspecting that Ajay was the same boy whose severed head was found, police detained seven members of his family on Saturday and conducted their DNA test to match with that of the murdered one.

“While we were awaiting the DNA test results, Ajay was traced to Atkot. When we brought him to the commissionerate, a large crowd followed us. They gheraoed the commissionerate and hurled abuses at us, saying that we had detained wrong people. As the situation appeared to spiral out of control, we had to resort to caning,” said a senior police official.

Four to five persons from the crowd were injured in the caning.

After the decapitated head of the boy was found on December 18, Rajkot police declared a prize of Rs 50,000 for anyone who could identify the deceased. The boy was first stifled to death with a cloth and then beheaded. The accused dumped his head in Aji river from the bridge that links Rukhadiapara and Bhagwatipara. The head was found on the Aji riverbed.

“However, the boy’s torso is missing. We suspect that the boy was sacrificed as part of some tantrik (black magic) rituals,” said R S Thakar, inspector of Rajkot B-Division police station.

Police have also printed pamphlets with the photographs of the boy’s head, urging public to help them identify him.