n eight-year old boy was killed at a welfare hostel for other backward classes at Challapalli town in Andhra Pradesh’s Krishna district in the early hours of Tuesday, the police said.
The body was of Dasari Aditya, a student of Class 3, was found in a pool of blood with his throat slit near the bathroom of the hostel by other students at around 4 am. They immediately alerted the hostel authorities who informed the police.
Krishna district additional superintendent of police Moka Sattibabu said the initial probe revealed that the murder had taken place after 2 am. “Inquiries with the students and hostel staff revealed that Aditya along with his elder brother Ashok was sleeping in the hostel room, when another student sleeping beside him woke him up and asked him to accompany him to the bathroom.”
“Both of them returned to their beds, but after some time, Aditya was missing from his bed. At around 4 am, when the other students went to the bathroom, they found the boy lying in a pool of blood,” Sattibabu said.
Local police who rushed to the hostel found that Aditya’s neck was slashed.
Sattibabu said no weapons were found near the body or in the hostel premises. “Unfortunately, evidences got erased due to large number of students gathering at the spot. So far, we could not get any clues. We have formed four special teams to launch the manhunt for the killer,” he said.
Inquiries revealed that the hostel watchman did not show up for duty Monday night while the hostel warden was also on leave. “We summoned them and are questioning them apart from the hostel cook and the boy’s relatives. We suspect that the killer might have stayed in the hostel last night,” Sattibabu said, adding that the post-mortem might provide some clues about the murder.
He said Aditya’s parents from Narayananagar in Challapalli town had some disputes with other family members and that could be one of the reasons for the murder.
Deputy director of welfare hostels in Krishna district Rama Bhargavi told reporters that a thorough inquiry had been ordered into the murder. “It appears to be the handiwork of outsiders who took advantage of the absence of hostel warden and watchman. We shall take stringent action against the hostel staff for their negligence. We shall also install closed circuit cameras in the hostel,” she said.
Andhra Pradesh Child Rights Association president P Achyuta Rao condemned the child’s murder and appealed to Director General of Police Gautam Sawang to expedite the investigation and arrest the killer.
He accused hostel authorities of negligence and appealed to the authorities to provide psychological counselling to the other students who were in a state of panic and shock over the killing of their fellow student.
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