Odisha madrasa sexual abuse and murder: Boy tortured, strangled to death by seniors to avoid getting caught

A 12-year-old madrasa student, whose body was recovered from the septic tank of the institution, was tortured and killed by five minor boys in the age group of 12 to 15 years, Odisha Police said on Sunday. The accused in the case are the victim’s seniors at the madrasa, who allegedly killed him to ensure the sexual assaults they had committed against juniors never came to light. The victim himself was sexually abused for about six months by the other minors, it was revealed.

The shocking incident was reported at a madrasa under Ranpur police station limits in Odisha's Nayagarh district. The allegedly murdered boy, who hailed from the Badamba area in Cuttack district, had threatened the seniors with exposing their act of sexual abuse of junior students, news agency PTI reported. The police claimed that the boy was sodomised by two senior boys, including the 15-year-old senior inmate of the madrasa, before being killed and his body dumped into the septic tank on September 2, Tuesday.

Initially, the police team thought the boy would have died after accidentally falling into the septic tank. However, when his body was inspected, marks of torture and strangulation were spotted, changing the course of the probe, PTI said. The police registered a case on September 3, and the five accused minor boys in the age group of 12 to 15 years have been taken into custody on Saturday. It was then revealed that the boy had survived a similar murder attempt on August 31, Sunday. But he didn’t get lucky the second time.

A case was registered under Section 103 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), on a murder charge, and the POCSO Act. While three boys were booked on charges of murder, one was booked for murder and under the POCSO Act, and another one only under the POCSO Act. The accused were shifted to a juvenile correctional facility at Angul.