Kidnapped boy’s body found, cops face people’s wrath

Biharsharif: Six policemen were injured on Wednesday as irate residents of Ekangarsarai in Nalanda district resorted to violence in protest against the killing of Class IX student Rithik Raj, who was kidnapped on Sunday. After postmortem, his body was cremated at Fatuha in Patna district on Wednesday afternoon. Rithik’s mutilated body was found from an abandoned panchayat building at Koiribigha under the Hulaspur police station area in neighbouring Jehanabad district Wednesday morning following the arrest of Kundan Kumar and Dipu Kumar on Tuesday.They had confessed to their involvement in the kidnapping and killing of the minor from Ekangarsarai took the police to the scene of crime.
As the news broke out, the Ekangarsarai residents blocked Biharsharif-Jehanabad NH-110 and pelted police personnel with stones. Police also resorted to mild lathicharge to disperse the crowd.
“The arrested duo had smashed Rithik’s head with a stone soon after taking him to the secluded building at Koiribigha on May 1,” said law and order DSP Rajesh Kumar, who is also the acting SP of Nalanda. He said one Ashish Kumar, who was also involved in the crime and arrested on Monday, escaped from the police custody on Tuesday morning.
Ashish was named as the main accused in the FIR lodged by Niranjan Sao, the father of the deceased. Sao runs a rice mill at Ekangarsarai Bazar. The deceased had gone to play cricket in a nearby field from where he was kidnapped by the trio. The accused were known to the deceased as they lived in his neighbourhood. “The motive behind the murder is yet to be ascertained,” Rajesh said.
Love affair might be the reason behind the kidnapping and brutal killing of the boy, but the acting SP refused to confirm it.
The Ekangarsarai Bazar residents had besieged Ekangarsarai police station and blocked rail and road traffic for hours on Tuesday to demand immediate recovery of the kidnapped boy and arrest of the criminals.