Boy, 4, sexually assaulted, killed in Odisha; Engineering student arrested

The suspect fled the area after the incident and was later arrested, police said. (representative)

Ganjam:

A 22-year-old engineering student was arrested on Wednesday over the death of a four-year-old boy in Odisha’s Ganjam district, police said.

The boy was found bloodied on the terrace of his neighbour’s house on Tuesday.

According to preliminary investigations, the engineering student had sexually assaulted the boy and, fearing arrest, smashed the boy’s head with an iron door of the house under construction, a police officer said.

The suspect fled the area after the incident and was arrested near Aska, SDPO Uma Shankar Singh said.

He said the exact cause of death could not be determined until the autopsy report was obtained.

The incident came to light after the victim’s parents did not find the boy in the house for hours and later saw the boy in the pool of blood on the terrace of the neighbour’s house. He was taken to a community health center in Dharakote, where the doctor pronounced him dead.

Meanwhile, human rights activist Rabindra Mishra appealed to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to order the state government to take strict action against the accused and pay Rs 20 lakh compensation to the parents of the victim.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)