Lucknow, August 02: A 12-year-old boy was tortured and subsequently set on fire, allegedly by a neighbourhood family, under suspicious circumstances in Mughalsarai police station area of Chandauli district on Monday.
The victim, who suffered over 70 per cent burn injuries, is battling for life at a Varanasi hospital and is not in a condition to narrate what exactly happened.
The police have arrested three of the accused identified as Dinesh Vishwakarma, his mother Dei Devi and sister Maya on charges of illegal detention, causing hurt and attempt to murder.
Chandauli Additional SP Rajesh Kumar said Saroj Tiwari informed the police that her son Ankit Tiwari was detained by her neighbour Dinesh and his family members at their house and later set on fire around 5 am.
The woman alleged they had a dispute over possession of a piece of land with Dinesh for the past few months. It was for this reason that Dinesh and his family had tried to kill her son, she alleged.
The ASP said the accused, however, told the police that Ankit entered their house around 2 am from the terrace. On hearing the noise, they caught the boy and locked him up in a room.
They told the police that they went to sleep after planning to hand over the boy to his parents in the morning. However, the boy sprinkled kerosene from the lamp in the room and set himself afire. On hearing his cries, they woke up, doused the flames and called Ankit’s parents before sending him to the district hospital, the accused said.
–Agencies–