Six-year-old killed, dumped in dustbin

Within days of the brutal killing of a toddler in Aligarh by a youth after her father failed to repay the loan, a six-year-old boy was allegedly strangled to death after being sodomised by a youth over a similar dispute in Uttar Pradesh's Baharaich district, about 200 kilometres from here.

The body of the child, which was dumped in a dustbin, was recovered on Wednesday evening, police said. He had gone missing on Tuesday morning.

Police sources said that the father of the kid, Vivek Gupta had been having a dispute with the accused, his neighbour Babloo Jaiswal over a monetary transaction.

Babloo had also threatened Gupta with dire consequences if the latter did not settle the matter. The accused, who was taken into custody after the victim's parents suspected his involvement in the killing, admitted to the crime during interrogation, sources said. Police said that the kid was sodomised before being strangled to death.

There has been a spate of incidents of rape of minors in the state in the past few days triggering a widespread backlash from rights activists as well as opposition parties.