Missing boy case turns into murder probe after 6 years; neighbour buried his body near Delhi-Mumbai Expressway

JAIPUR: A 6-year-old case of a missing child in Bandikui near Dausa now turned into a murder investigation after a neighbour allegedly confessed to killing the 4-year-old boy in Aug 2020. The revelation came after renewed scrutiny and court-monitored progress in the case. Police arrested the accused on Friday and are working to locate the mortal remains.

Since the Rajasthan High Court, during the hearing of the habeas corpus case of the missing 4-year-old boy from Bandikui, scolded senior police officers from Dausa and Rajasthan Police, the police were keen to solve the case and find the boy.

"As we started digging deeper into the missing boy's case, we got some inputs which stated that the neighbour of the boy was in some dispute with the family members of the missing boy. Thus, we detained the accused for questioning," said a senior police officer.



Police said it is now confirmed that the boy was allegedly abducted and later murdered. His body was buried near the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway near Bandikui. The incident was from Unbara village under the Bandikui police station area.

The accused youth lives around 200 metres away from the child's house. "Acting on the information given by him, our team has been carrying out digging work with a JCB machine about 300 metres along the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway since Thursday. However, no remains or clear evidence were found during the search," said Sagar Rana, Superintendent of Police, Dausa, while talking to TOI.

Police teams reached the expressway edge near Unbara village on Thursday afternoon. They started the excavation. "So far, several items of clothing were found during the excavation. The police showed them to the youth, but confirmation could not be made." In the investigation so far, the accused confessed that on August 16, 2020, at around 11 am, he picked up the child playing in the courtyard of his house and took him near his house. There, he killed him with a knife. Then he put the body in a sack and hid it behind the house.

To avoid suspicion, the next day at 11 pm, he took it 500 metres away to the under-construction Delhi-Mumbai Expressway and buried it in the soil. "Yes, the accused is so far claiming that he is unable to locate the exact location where the child was buried in 2020. Given the circumstances at the spot, the accused is unable to recognise the place," said an officer. According to the police, the incident dated back to August 16, 2020, when the child, identified as Prince alias Tillu, went missing from the courtyard of his house in Bairwa Dhani under the Bandikui police station area. A missing person's report was registered the following day, but despite investigation by nearly 7 officers over the years, no concrete leads were found.