Indore Horror: Boy,12, Found Dead Inside Bed Storage Unit, Two Arrested

Indore: The body of a 12-year-old boy who had gone missing while playing near his home was recovered from inside a bed storage unit in a residential apartment in Indore on Saturday. Two people, including a juvenile, have been arrested as suspects, police said.

The child, a resident of the Srinagar Kankad area, was last noticed around 4 PM on Friday. When he did not return home, his family lodged a missing person complaint, prompting police to initiate a search operation urgently.

According to sources, police have reviewed footage from nearby CCTV cameras, which showed the boy cycling in the area before entering a multi-storey apartment complex. However, the footage did not show him leaving the premises. During the search, the child’s blood-stained jacket and his school bag were recovered from different locations within the apartment complex. A sniffer dog squad was deployed, and all flats in the building were checked as part of the in-depth search operation.

Police attention later turned to one of the residents of the complex, identified as Riyan, whose conduct during the search operation was found to be suspicious. He repeatedly accompanied police teams and attempted to divert their focus, and was subsequently detained for questioning, police said. Upon further investigation, police recovered the boy’s body from a bed storage box inside the accused’s flat. The body had been concealed under the bedding unit, and other occupants of the house were reportedly present at the time.

Preliminary reports suggest that the child was assaulted and also suffocated. Injuries consistent with strangulation have been found on the victim’s face. The exact cause of death will be confirmed after a post-mortem examination, police said.

A juvenile allegedly involved in the crime has also been taken into custody. Both the persons arrested have been known to be the residents of the same flat. “We searched all the flats and inquired, and with the suspicious movement of one of the residents, Rihan- the accused, it was found that he had killed the child and hid the body in the bed box. It seems from the primary investigation that he was suffocated using a rope, ” Station House Officer Chandra Bhal Singh said to reporters. 

The accused allegedly covered the body with warm clothes, after hiding it in the bed box. During the course of the investigation, police reportedly found an elderly woman, known to be the accused's grandmother resting on the same bed. The motive behind the alleged murder, and the exact sequence of events that led to the child's death, is yet to be established, as interrogation of the accused is ongoing. Further investigation into the case is also underway.

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