The police arrested a 19-year-old youth in connection with the murder of a 16-month-old boy at Pamur in Prakasam district on September 5 (Tuesday).
The police were clueless for a couple of days after the baby, M. Sathvik, went missing on August 31 (Thursday) as none had made any demand for ransom. Acting on a complaint lodged by the baby’s mother and grandmother with the Pamur police, Prakasam Superintendent of Police Malika Garg formed special teams under the supervision of Additional Superintendent of Police S.V. Sridhar Rao.
The special teams pursued the leads obtained by the CLUES team and dog squad. The baby’s mother, now pregnant, is living with her mother-in-law as her husband, a mason, is working in Tirupati.
The police concluded it as a murder case after recovering the partially decomposed body of the baby from the fields at Chintalapalem village near Chandrasekharapuram on September 3 (Sunday), the SP told the media here on September 5 (Tuesday).
The accused has been identified as Amar, a junior college dropout. Addicted to vices, Amar allegedly abducted the baby boy and strangled him to death before hiding the body behind the haystack on the village outskirts, the police said.
According to the police, revenge is suspected to be the motive behind the murder as the accused allegedly made sexual advances towards the mother of the baby earlier, but was spurned down.
The SP lauded the police personnel from the Kanigiri division led by Deputy Superintendent of Police R. Ramaraju for swiftly cracking the case.