Hoshiarpur, Sept. 11 — The body of a five-year-old boy who went missing on Tuesday evening was discovered at a cremation ground in Purhiran on the outskirts of the city on Wednesday morning, police said.
The child had left home to pay obeisance at a nearby gurdwara but never returned. His parents lodged a missing complaint, prompting a search. Police arrested a suspect late Tuesday night, but the boy could not be traced until the following morning.
Senior superintendent of police (SSP) Sandeep Kumar Malik said CCTV footage helped track the accused, who was seen taking the boy away on a two-wheeler. “The two-wheeler belonged to a sabzi mandi trader, who revealed that one of his employees, a migrant, had taken it,” Malik said. “Our teams pieced together the leads and caught the accused by night, but he was too intoxicated to provide details. First, he denied involvement, but later confessed to abducting the child.”
The accused has been identified as Manke Yadav, a migrant labourer from Uttar Pradesh residing in the sabzi mandi area of Hoshiarpur. Police described him as an alcoholic.
The SSP said preliminary evidence suggested the boy was strangled. “It is not yet clear whether the child was also sodomised. Post-mortem and forensic reports will shed more light,” he noted.
The victim’s family, who had moved to Hoshiarpur from Phagwara two months ago, demanded the death penalty for the accused. “We will build a strong case and present evidence in court at the earliest,” Malik asserted, adding that police are determined to take the case to its logical conclusion.
