Missing boy's death: Mother-son duo held in Odisha

JAGATSINGHPUR: The death of the missing three-year-old boy of Sankarpur took a new twist after Biridi police arrested a woman and her teenage son of the same village on Friday for killing the child.
The accused are Jhuma Behera (47) and her 13-year-son Siba. Police said the teenager killed Ashish Bhoi, the victim, while his mother Jhuma harboured her accused son.

On Monday, Ashish was playing on the village road when Siba asked him to shift bamboos to another place for Kartika Purnima festival. While lifting the stack, a bamboo fell on Ashish’s head and he fell unconscious. Suspecting him to be dead, Siba threw his body in a creek.

The teenager returned home and told his mother about the incident. Jhuma rushed to the creek and found that the boy had died. In a bid to protect her son, she cooked up a story of Ashish being kidnapped by a travelling salesman (Pheriwala). Believing her story, Ashish’s parents lodged a complaint with Biridi police stating that their son had been abducted.

However on Wednesday, Ashish’s body was recovered from the creek. During investigation, police found Siba’s involvement in the boy’s death. The teenager was interrogated following which he confessed to his crime and Jhuma’s involvement in the case. Basing on his confession, police registered a murder case and arrested the mother-son duo.

Biridi IIC Niranjan Mallick said Jhuma was arrested under section 212 of the IPC for harbouring the offender. She was produced in court and remanded in judicial custody. Her minor son was produced in the juvenile court of Angul, the IIC added.