12-year-old boy found murdered inside locked house in Sitapur; youth detained

Lucknow: A 12-year-old boy was found murdered inside a locked house in Shahri Sarai village of Sitapur under suspicious circumstances, police said on Saturday. The blood-soaked body was recovered from beneath a bed, they said, adding the main accused was detained late night and was being interrogated.

The child, a Class IV student, went missing around 5 pm on Friday after leaving home, his family told police. Despite searching for him through the evening, relatives were unable to trace his whereabouts.

However, on Saturday morning, some family members reached a locked neighbouring house belonging to a relative and entered it through the rooftop. Inside one of the rooms, they found the boy’s body lying under a bed in a pool of blood.

Family members alleged that two boxes had been deliberately placed in front of the bed in an apparent attempt to conceal the body. The child was found with severe injury marks around the neck, indicating a violent assault, police said.

In his complaint, the victim’s father expressed suspicion against a youth, Mudassir, who was allegedly present in the house around the time of the incident. According to the complaint, the accused allegedly locked the house and fled after the crime.

Police said an FIR was registered and the body was sent for postmortem.