Shillong: A 10-year-old boy was killed and his body dumped in the garden of a house in Meghalaya’s Ri-Bhoi district, police said on Friday.

Police said the incident took place in the Umtyngar village last week on February 18. The boy was allegedly murdered for stealing a liquor bottle.

On February 19, one Shynsharlang Nonghyndah informed the police that the dead body of a young boy was found in the garden of one Comand Nongran, a resident of Umtyngar village, following which a first information report was filed at the Patharkhmah police station, said police.

Confirming the incident, Ri-Bhoi superintendent of police (SP) Jagpal Singh Dhanoa said that the deceased boy went missing on 17 February, and in this connection, a cognizable case was registered under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code.

Two suspects – Banshngai Tyngsong (28) and Pynshailang Warjri (32), both residents of Umtyngar, were arrested and following intensive interrogation, it was revealed that the boy had stayed at the shed of one of the suspects on the evening of February 17.

The next morning, the victim tried to run away with a liquor bottle belonging to one of the suspects. In a fit of anger, Tyngsong and his accomplice Warjri chased the boy, thrashed him and smothered him with a bag leading to his death around his face, said the SP.

Later, they hid the body near a forested area and waited until evening to transport the body to the garden of a local resident– Nongran, the Dhanoa stated, adding, “that a recreation of the crime scene will be carried out for the perpetrators to reveal the whole sequence of the crime.”

The SP said that the accused had been produced before a local court in Nongpoh, which has remanded them to five days in police custody.