MADURAI - Police have found that the eight-year-old ,whose body was found in a wooden box at a school near here a few days ago, was sodomized and strangled to death by five teenagers.
Four school students , aged between 14 and 17, and an 18-year-old daily wage labourer were arrested for the crime on Thursday.
"All the five hail from Kilavaneri, the victim's village. They used to gather behind the school to drink liquor or smoke beedi . On July 16, they spotted P Jayasurya (8),(pic) who was playing hide-and-seek with friends, entering the school around 4.30pm.
They grabbed Jayasurya , took him to the school bathroom and sodomized him. The boy fell unconscious. Fearing that Jayasurya would expose them, they strangled him and dumped the body in a wooden box," said a police officer.
