18-year-old Assam man murders minor stepbrothers, accuses father of 'neglecting' him

Representational pic

An 18-year-old man was arrested in Tangla town of Udalguri district, Assam, for allegedly murdering his two minor stepbrothers who had gone missing on Friday, police said.

According to news agency ANI, the bodies of the victims - Class 5 and Class 6 students - were recovered on Saturday near a river in the Batabari area of Tangla.

A senior police officer said that they have recovered the weapon of offence - a short sword - with which the accused, identified as Neeraj Sarma, had slit the throats of his minor stepbrothers.

According to ANI, the police in Assam said that the victims were born to Sarma's father Mahendra's second wife.

According to the police, the victims, who were students of Kendriya Jatiya Vidyalay in Tangla, had gone missing since Friday when they were on their way to school.

Udalguri Superintendent of Police (SP) Pushkin Jain told ANI that Sarma has confessed to his crime and will be produced before the magistrate.

"We received information on December 20 (Friday) that two minors had gone missing while on their way to school. After receiving the information, we launched a search operation. On December 21 (Saturday) morning, we received information that the bodies of two unidentified minors in school uniforms were found near a jungle area. Our police team immediately reached the spot and identified the missing boys," Jain said.

"We immediately started our investigation, and a CID (Crime Investigation Department) team and a forensic team from Guwahati arrived here. We identified some suspects and detained them. We then established that Neeraj Sarma, the son of the victims' father from his first wife had murdered his stepbrothers. During interrogation, he confessed his crime. On the basis of his statement, we recovered the weapon and a motorcycle which were used in the crime," he added.

The Udalguri SP further said that the main motive behind the crime seems to be that Neeraj wanted attention from his father. He thought that he and his mother were not given attention and felt some negligence from his stepmother and father.

"He thought that if he killed his stepbrothers, his family would likely pay attention to him. On this idea, he planned and executed the crime. During the investigation, we found that no other person was involved in this crime. Only Neeraj Sarma had made all this plan. We have registered a case and started further investigation. We will try to submit the chargesheet as soon as possible with scientific evidence," Jain added.

(With ANI inputs)