8-year-old boy found murdered

In a case of child abuse, an eight-year-old boy of Uchapatti, who went missing on Sunday, was found murdered and his decomposed body was found under a bridge on Kappalur-Uchapatti road near here on Tuesday.

The police said that the boy, studying in Standard III at a local government school, went out to play on Sunday evening and never returned home.

After searching for him, his father, who works at a fuel station, had lodged a complaint with the police on Monday afternoon.

However, on Tuesday morning the boy’s body was found lying under a bridge some 500 metres away from the village.

“The boy’s dress had been removed and it was covered with a sheet,” the Superintendent of Police, Vijayendra Bidari, said.

Deputy Superintendent of Police, Tirupparankundram, Ramasamy, said that the boy’s neck was slit and the body crushed with a boulder.

Though the post-mortem report was yet to arrive, the police suspect a case of sexual assault and the case was booked under Prevention of Children against Sexual Offences Act, 2012 and for murder.

The police were on the lookout for local suspects in this regard.

Held for abusing girl

Meanwhile, in another incident, the city police on Tuesday arrested a 72-year-old man, Abdul Lateef, on charges of sexually assaulting a four-and-a-half-year-old girl in his neighbourhood in Ansari Nagar.

The accused, a retired railway guard, had abused the girl while she was playing outside her house a few days ago. When the child complained of pain, the crime came to light after she was taken to hospital.

Sexual assault suspected; the boy’s neck was slit and the body crushed with a boulder, police said