Bhopal: A police constable has been arrested for murdering an eight-year-old boy in a fit of rage in Datia town of Madhya Pradesh because the child was hungry and kept pleading for food. The accused, Ravi Sharma, dumped the body in a deserted part of Gwalior, said police, adding that he was identified from the car used to dispose of the body. The victim, Mayank Sen, had lost his mother some years ago and lived in Datia town with his father, who works at a barbershop.

According to Sharma’s statement, the hungry boy approached him for food and kept pleading in spite of the cop snubbing him twice. Sharma lost his cool and held the child by the neck, strangling him to death, say police. The crime took place in Datia on May 4th when a religious rath yatra’ was being held in town. The child had left his house to see the yatra but didn’t return. His father filed a missing person’s report at Kotwali police station when he returned from work.

The next day, Mayank’s body was found in a deserted location in Gwalior’s Jhansi Road area, around 70km from Datia. Gwalior SP Amit Sanghi said, “The body was identified and we also identified the car in which the body was brought and zeroed in on the accused, Ravi Sharma, a constable posted at Police Training School, Tighara. He was arrested and was handed over to Datia police.”

Police sources said that the cop eventually admitted to killing the boy during the questioning. “He did it without any motive but in a fit of rage. During interrogation, he said that he remains irritated and depressed most of the time. On May 4th, too, he was irritated when he was deployed for the event in Datia though his original posting is in Gwalior.