Madhya Pradesh: Constable Arrested for Killing 6-Year-Old Who Asked for Money

While the incident took place in Madhya Pradesh’s Datia district, the arrested constable reportedly drove around 70 km to Gwalior to dispose of the child’s body.

New Delhi: The Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday, May 11, said that one of its officers has been arrested for allegedly murdering a six-year-old boy in the state’s Datia district and subsequently dumping his body in the Gwalior district near by.

The officer in question, Ravi Sharma, is a head constable who was posted at Gwalior’s Police Training School, according to NDTV.

According to news agency ANI, the boy had been repeatedly asking Sharma for money to buy food while the former was on duty in Datia on May 4. Eventually, the officer lost his temper and strangled the six-year-old. 

Thereafter, he reportedly put the boy’s body in the trunk of his car before driving back to Gwalior to dispose of it in an isolated place.

Aman Singh Rathore, Datia superintendent of police (SP), told the agency that Sharma has been arrested since and that Rathore has written to state police headquarters for Sharma’s immediate dismissal.

A day after the incident, on May 5, a Datia resident reportedly told the police that the six-year-old had gone missing, having been lured away by someone. The police subsequently registered a case for the same and began looking for the boy.

Also read: MP: Cops Arrest Man for Supplying Pistol Used for Firing at SP During Khargone Riots

According to NDTV, the police reportedly got a tip-off that the boy’s body had been found in Gwalior’s Vivekanand Chouraha area, which falls under the limits of the Jhansi Road police stations. The body has subsequently been identified as being that of the boy.

During the investigation, the police reportedly examined CCTV footage from the Panchsheel Nagar area in Datia where the boy had gone missing from and saw a suspicious man who was identified as Sharma, as well as his car, in the footage.

SP Rathore said that Sharma was sent to Datia on duty during a ‘Rath Yatra’ and that he returned to Gwalior with two other police constables in the identified vehicle.

Rathore also said that while being questioned by the police, Sharma claimed to have depression as well as mental stress, which he said led to him losing his temper when the boy repeatedly asked him for money.

Sharma’s vehicle has been seized. The investigation is ongoing.