Balangir: Around a week after a 15-year-old boy went missing from Belpada village in Odisha’s Balangir district, Titilagarh police claimed to have cracked the case and arrested his uncle on charges of kidnap and murder.
Police said the boy was allegedly abducted and subsequently murdered by his uncle, identified as Rohan Bag. Rohan killed his nephew Rehan by strangulating him.
Later in a bid to mislead the police, the accused called the family members of the deceased boy and demanded a ransom of Rs 2.3 lakh.
As per the case diary, the deceased minor was missing from his house on April 14, 2024. Based on a complaint lodged by the boy’s parents, police had initially lodged a missing persons’ complaint and launched a probe. The incident had spread shockwaves in the area.
The matter came to the fore after police arrested the killer uncle and took him to the crime spot for scene recreation on Saturday. Police also exhumed the decomposed body of the minor and sent it for post-mortem.
Later, police produced the accused in the court from where he was remanded to judicial custody after the magistrate rejected his bail plea. A case (166/24) under Sections-302 and 366 of IPC was registered in this connection.
The accused admitted to his crime during the interrogation. He confirmed that he strangled his nephew to death after he failed to get Rs 3 lakh as ransom from the latter’s father on April 14. Later, he buried the body near a creek close to the village and fled the scene.
However, police zeroed in on him after a letter written by Rohan demanding ransom was handed over to the former by the victim’s father.
Police found the involvement of Rohan Bag in the missing of the boy during probe when his father handed over a threatening letter demanding ransom to police. The letter mentioned that the boy will be released only after he pays Rs 3 lakh ransom.
Police formed a technical team to further the probe on the basis of the letter. They found the involvement of Rohan in the boy’s missing and picked him for interrogation. During questioning, he admitted to the kidnapping and murder of his nephew.
