AGARTALA: A day after the brutal murder of 11-year-old Purna Biswas of Mohanpur in West Tripura, the two accused in the case were arrested, police said here today.
According to a report, one of the accused was the maternal uncle of the boy while the other was a neighbour. Both the accused admitted to committing the crime. The accused identified as Arjun Das and Biswajit Biswas were below 18-years.
Referring to the confession of Arjun police said, "Taking advantage of Purna's parents' absence, the duo called him for sharing an ice cream with them in the late afternoon on June 26."
The father of the deceased, a day labourer had gone for work and his mother to Agartala for shopping. Purna was hit at the back of his head by Biswajit with a branch of a tree near a jungle. Thereafter, they pulled the unconscious boy deep inside the forest. Later, Arjun brought an axe and hacked the lower abdomen and spine of the boy to ensure his death.
"The intension of hitting Purna at lower abdomen and other sensitive parts of the body was to misguide the investigation that the human organ smuggling racket is involved in the murder. Initially, rumor spread across the state but it was finally established that all the organs were intact," a police man involved in the investigation said.
Based on the local inputs police recovered the axe and stick used for the murder from the spot and arrested Arjun first. During interrogation he revealed Biswajit's name and accordingly he was also picked up at night. According to police dispute over land property between two families might be the reason behind the murder of Purna.
The accused stated that Purna's mother insulted her step brother Arjun few days ago over possession of a plot of land and from that day he was determined to avenge the insult.
Arjun was planning to kill the family members and was looking for an opportunity. On the day, he noticed Purna was left alone in the house by his parents and planned to murder him. He called Biswajit to help him but when Purna fell unconscious after being hit on his head, he ran away from the spot and remained at home till the police detained him last night, police claimed.
Police said they were also looking for related angles to trace the involvement of others.
Meantime, the chief minister visited the victim'c family last evening and announced Rs 5 lakh one time ex-gratia for them and assured justice for them.
Purna's murder had triggered rumors in social media about activities of organ smuggling racket in Tripura and out of suspicion as many as 11 innocent people, including a telecom engineer in Khowai, were manhandled branding child lifters in last 24 hours. Police however, arrested as many as four persons in Gomati and South Tripura districts on charge of spreading rumors yesterday.
DGP A K Shukla warned that police was closely monitoring social media and stern action would be taken against the guilty. He stated that there are no child lifters in Tripura and its only rumor spread by a section for their vested interest.
All Superintendent of Police (SPs) had been asked to take stringent action against such rumor mongers and continue the investigation of the four murder cases that occurred in the state in the last four days.
The DGP added that so far situation across Tripura was under control. He indicated that police action had cornered the drug traffickers, arm smuggling rackets and land mafias, and they have been desperately trying to disrupt peace to divert police attention from them, but they would not be successful.