Five juveniles arrested for murder, 'sodomy' of madrasa boy in Odisha

In a gruesome incident, a 12-year-old boy student of a madrasa in Nayagarh was reportedly murdered after being sexually assaulted by five of his dorm mates, all children. The perpetrators threw the body of the victim into a septic tank of the facility after strangulating him.

The juvenile criminals are all in the age group of 14-15 and have been arrested. They were brought before the juvenile justice board at Nayagarh that sent them to a juvenile correction home at Angul for 13 days, said inspector-in-charge of Ranapur Asishdev Sahoo.

The victim, a Badamba resident of Cuttack district, had been studying at the madrasa for the past one year. On September 2, the authorities of the educational institution approached the police after they couldn't find the boy.

Police filed a case and started investigation and subsequently found the body of the boy from a deserted septic tank in the madrasa.

Investigation uncovered that a 15-year-old boy had unnatural sex with the victim for almost a year. Recently, when the victim complained and threatened to tell his parents, the 15 year-old molested and beat him up.

On 31st August, police stated, the 15-year-old, along with four inmates, pulled the victim to the septic tank and pushed him inside it. But the victim survived, albeit with injuries. Two days later, the primary offender, along with some others, attempted unnatural sex with the victim. When the victim fought back, they choked him and threw the body into the septic tank. In the late afternoon, they reported absence of the victim to the headmaster.

Sahoo added that police took in CCTV recordings and questioned others at the madrasa and this led the police to 15 year-old boy. The recordings indicated the six, including the victim, heading for the septic tank but only five came back.

More questioning unraveled the horrific crime and the five also confessed to the crime. On September 3, the victim's body was recovered from the septic tank and a murder case was registered.

On Saturday, the five accused were produced in front of the juvenile justice board. The father of the victim had arrived at the madrasa on September 2 when his son was found missing. He asked to inspect the CCTV footage but was not assisted by the authorities. Sahoo added that the further investigation is underway to dig out the facts.