Three days after six-year-old Achhe Lal went missing from his Sector-52 home, his body was recovered from Sector 48 on Monday with a slit throat. The police said the boy was sexually abused and later murdered by accused Pappu Paswan, who has been arrested.

According to the police, Madho Shankar, a labourer, lodged a complaint on Sunday that his son had been missing since Friday afternoon.

“The child’s mother, Shanti Devi, said today she suspected her neighbour Pappu Paswan behind her son’s disappearance. A few colony residents, too, said they had seen Achhe with Pappu on Friday. We immediately traced Pappu and arrested him,” said Sector-61 police post in-charge Baldev Kumar.

While the accused initially denied his involvement, he confessed to the crime after sustained interrogation, the officer said. The police went to the spot where the crime had been committed and found the child’s body in the bushes, with his hands and feet tied with a rope and his throat slit.

Baldev Kumar said the accused had lured the child with sweets and then taken him to the bushes. “He (Pappu) tied the boy’s hands and feet and then sexually abused him. Later, he slit the child’s throat with a shaving blade and left the place,” the officer added. The police have registered a case against Pappu and sent the body for a postmortem. Achhe’s parents had not been informed of his death till the filing of this report.

Achhe, the youngest of the couple’s one daughter and four sons, was a student of Class I in Government School, Sector 52.