Puri: Puri: Cracking the case of death of an 11-year-old boy in Delang, the Puri Superintendent of Police (SP) Vinit Agrawal said the minor was killed by his neighbour and the accused has been arrested.

Elaborating further, the Puri SP added on the day of the crime, Prabhakar Sahoo alias Bapi called minor boy, Ashirbad who was returning home at around 6:45 pm on April 15. Both of them went to the backyard of an abandoned house and watched YouTube videos.

Bapi offered the minor boy ₹100 through which the victim would buy four cricket balls. In exchange, the accused asked Ashirbad to hold the former’s body part for happiness. After initial hesitation, the boy agreed for the same. 

In the meantime, Ashirbad’s uncle called the minor boy’s name loudly while searching for him. The boy asked Bapi to handover the money as promised to him. But the accused told the boy he will give the money later. Following this, the boy warned the accused that he would disclose the matter to his uncle and other villagers, if he did not receive the money.

The accused got panicked and smothered the boy’s face with the vest that the victim was wearing. Thinking that the child has died, Bapi dumped the boy in the septic tank on the backyard of the house of one villager, Kelu Charan Sahoo located nearby, the police official added.

The accused then dumped the wearing apparels of the victim at another location and left the village.

The police official added the accused, Bapi was a neighbor of Ashirbad. However, the accused was staying at Badapari since last one year and occasionally visiting Ratanpur.

Based on credible in formation, the police recovered the body of Ashirbad from the septic tank of Kelu Charan in early hours on April 21 and sent it to the Puri District Headquarters Hospital for post mortem.

The wearing apparel of the victim was recovered from another septic tank of the village the next day on basis of the confession of the accused.

The police official added the accused had been forwarded to the court of Special Judge under POCSO Act, Puri today.

Further investigation into the case is going on.