Kanpur: Sikandra police on Tuesday arrested a 35-year-old man accused of raping and murdering a five-year-old boy in Kanpur Dehat. The child’s body was found in bushes about 400 metres from his residence, naked on Sunday night.According to Sikandra SHO Sudhakar Singh, the accused lured the boy to a field on the pretext of plucking mangoes and then sexually assaulted and murdered him. He allegedly dumped the body in nearby bushes after the crime. He said that after the child went missing, the accused had also joined the victim’s family and villagers in searching for the boy in an attempt to avoid suspicion.The boy’s father informed police that the family’s suspicion deepened after they allegedly saw the accused consuming intoxicants with a companion in the field. Family members also claimed they later saw him returning towards the village with the child in his lap. The child was subsequently taken to the community health centre (CHC), where doctors declared him dead. Police later arrested the accused near the Kandhi overbridge on the Kanpur-Etawah highway while he was allegedly trying to flee. The cops also recovered empty liquor bottles from the crime scene.Investigators also found that the accused had allegedly assaulted another child from the village four years ago. However, the victim’s family did not lodge a complaint at the time due to fear of social stigma. SHO Singh said the accused had been jailed multiple times in the past.
