After a couple were beaten to death on Saturday by a mob that accused them of killing an eight-year-old boy who had gone missing in West Bengal’s Nadia district, the police have arrested their son and three other members of the family over the boy’s murder.
The boy, a Class 3 student, went missing in Nischintapur, on Friday afternoon while playing.
“Despite desperate searches by his family, the child did not return home that night. His body, wrapped in a tarpaulin, was discovered floating in a pond near his home on Saturday morning,” said a police officer.
The discovery ignited outrage among local residents, who accused a neighboring family of killing the boy and lynched the couple, identified as Utpal Mandal and his wife Soma. Their house was ransacked and set ablaze, while the couple and other family members were dragged out and assaulted. Another family member was severely injured and is hospitalised.
According to police sources, the boy’s family filed a complaint of kidnapping and murder with the Tehatta police station, naming the couple and five others as suspects. The arrested accused are the lynched couple’s younger son, his wife, and two other relatives, the police said, adding that they would present the accused in court and seek their custody for 14 days to further investigate the case of kidnapping and murder.
The tragic incident has created a tense atmosphere in Nischintapur, with a large number of police deployed to maintain law and order.
The police are yet to arrest anyone for the lynching of the couple.
As per police sources, there had been a longstanding feud between the Mandal family and the boy’s family. Investigators are looking into whether the boy’s killing was the fallout of past disputes or a possible incident of child trafficking. Utpal was accused of attempting to abduct children years ago, the sources said, adding that he used to ferry children to school.
