A 26-year-old man, who had been accused of sodomizing, killing, and hanging a four-year-old from a tree in July, was lynched by the victim’s family in Bareilly. The accused was on the run since he committed the crime and the local police had announced a reward of Rs 25,000 for any information about him. Posters with photos of the accused were also put up in several places by the police. The relatives of the child, however, caught the accused, Prempal, on Wednesday evening and beat him to death with rods and bricks even before the police could reach. After he was attacked, Prempal was rushed to a hospital where doctors declared him brought dead.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of Bareilly, Rohit Singh Sajwan, told reporters, “Prempal, who was wanted in the sexual assault and murder of a 4-year-old boy, was beaten to death by a few people in Aonla area on Wednesday. We have arrested two persons in the lynching case and both of them are the relatives of the boy. An FIR has been registered against two identified and several unidentified people for the murder.” Prempal had been hiding in Aonla in Bareilly district. It may be recalled that the four-year-old boy had gone missing on July 13 soon after he stepped out to play. He was last seen playing with Prempal, who had come to his home along with a few relatives of the family, a day earlier. Initially, the family thought that Prempal had abducted the child for ransom. But, a few hours later, they found the child’s body hanging from a tree outside the village. A post-mortem examination confirmed sexual assault and Prempal went missing. Police had registered an FIR under IPC sections 302 (murder), sections 377 (unnatural offenses), 364 (kidnapping), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence), and under section 4/5 of POCSO Act against him.
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