District superintendent of police, Gopabandhu Mallick, while claiming that it was a case of gagging, said that the four arrested were produced before the sub-divisional judicial magistrate, Sambalpur, who remanded them to police custody on Thursday. The four accused include Jharu Bariha, his wife, Golapi, and sons, Gangaram and Jenamani.

According to police, Mithun, son of Sara and Madhia Mallick, had gone to a river nearby for a morning bath on April 26. When he did not return home even at 1 pm, Mithun's family began to look for him. After a frantic search, the boy's father reported him missing at Dhama police station. Later in the evening, Mithun's body was found in a nearby mango orchard. Surprisingly,Mithun's family had thoroughly searched the orchard in the daytime but had not been able to find him there.

Suspicion fell on the neighbours -- Barihas -- as they were the only persons living in the orchard. Police searched the house of the Barihas and discovered Mithun's blood stained pant there. During interrogations, it was revealed that Mithun was picked up by Jharu Bariha's two sons when he was returning home from the river. They are stated to have confessed to murdering the boy.

Mallick said the boy was killed by gagging and that no injuries were found on his body during post-mortem.