24yo gets life in jail for murder, sodomy

Agra: A Pocso court in Aligarh sentenced a 24-year-old man to life imprisonment for murdering a 10-year-old boy after sexually assaulting him last year. Additional district sessions judge Anil Kumar also imposed a Rs 70,000 fine on him.Additional district govt counsel Mahesh Sharma on Friday said, "The boy, a Class 5 student, did not return home from school on June 17, 2025. Unable to find him, his family members lodged a missing person's complaint."A case was registered under BNS section 137-2 (kidnapping) and an investigation was initiated. Acting on a tip-off, police detained a resident of the same village. Police said he was a friend of the victim's elder brother.During questioning, the accused allegedly confessed to sodomising the child at a millet farm, strangling him to death and destroying the evidence by setting the body on fire with petrol. The body was recovered and sent for postmortem.An empty bottle with a few drops of petrol in it, a matchbox and the accused's garments found at the scene were seized. Police then added sections 5/6 of the Pocso Act, and BNS sections 103-1 (murder) and 238-A (disappearance of evidence of offence) to the FIR.The accused was sent to jail and weeks later police submitted a chargesheet. After hearing both sides and examining all evidence and witness testimonies, the court found the accused guilty.