A 25-year-old man has been arrested for killing a five-year-old boy who had gone missing on December 6 in Boisar, Palghar district. Palghar police told mid-day that the accused, Mahendra Singh, was allegedly in an illicit relationship with the mother of the deceased. “When she refused to continue her illicit relationship with Singh, they had a heated argument and he decided to teach her a lesson,” said a police officer attached to the Boisar police station, where initially a missing and kidnapping case was registered the day the boy went missing.

‘Accused joined search for the five-year-old boy’

Singh is a neighbour of the boy in Boisar. “After killing the boy, Singh pretended as if nothing had happened. He even visited the police station with the family members of the minor boy to register the missing complaint. He also joined the boy’s parents and friends in looking for him,” said the officer. Since the matter was sensitive, the local Crime Branch was involved in the search operation. “On December 8, the body of a minor boy was recovered from a compound wall near a drain in MIDC Tarapur.