Priest arrested for brutal murder of 11-yr-old Dalit boy

By Kanwardeep Singh
Times of India
January 01, 2018

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bareilly/priest-arrested-for-brutal-murder-of-11-yr-old-dalit-boy/articleshow/62329222.cms

Shahjahanpur: With the arrest of a local priest, police claimed to have solved the brutal murder of an 11-year-old Dalit boy in a village in the district on Saturday. Police said the boy had seen the priest in an objectionable position with a woman, which lead to his murder. The case was solved within 24 hours with the help of investigation by additional superintendent of police (ASP) SC Shakya and the dog squad.
The body of the boy, Amit Pal, was found in Pipri Kalan village of Katra area on Sunday morning. There were several stab wounds on the body, and his limbs were fractured. An FIR was registered against unidentified persons under section 302 (murder) of the IPC and investigations began. The ASP also arrived at the village and began investigating the murder.The postmortem was conducted by a panel of three doctors on Monday and found over 15 injuries on the throat, chest and abdomen.

Police initially suspected the crime to be an act of revenge, but the boy’s family said they had no enmity with anyone. On Sunday evening, the dog squad was called from Bareilly. Sniffer dog Diana, and her handler Kapil Dev, took a police team from the spot where the body was found to the hut of a local priest, Sua Lal.

“The priest was one of the suspects because of his activities during the day, and a few bloodstains were also found in his hut. He was detained and interrogated. He confessed that he had killed Amit because the boy had seen him in a compromising position with a local woman. Since he did not want to lose his clean image as a priest, Sua Lal murdered the boy with a knife. He has shown us where he threw the knife. He will be sent to jail on Tuesday,” said superintendent of police KB Singh.

“It was a really brutal murder and the accused has confessed to the crime. The investigation team and ASP remained in the village during the entire period, which helped in solving the case within 24 hours. The accused has been living in the village for a while,” SP Singh added.