An FIR has been lodged against a private construction company in connection with the mysterious death of five minor children in Sahebganj police station area of Muzaffarpur district. Residents hinted at human sacrifice as the motive.
Ranjit Rai, father of Raj Kumar, one of the dead boys, lodged a complaint with the Sahebganj police station on Thursday after returning from Ahmedabad. He alleged his son had been killed at the behest of a construction company engaged in laying railway tracks on the Hajipur-Sugauli line.
The bodies of five children, aged 7-15, were recovered from a chaur ( a seasonal water body)near the site of a construction company at Khursheda village on Tuesday evening.
The residents had blocked traffic on Sahebganj-Kesaria road to protest against the incident.
Another resident, Shiv Pujan Patel, corroborated the charge. He told the police that the boys had been killed under a well-hatched conspiracy. They had gone to take part in the Mahaviri Jhanda (a religious function) on Monday but were found dead the next day.
"We have come to know that the five children were 'sacrificed' by workers of the company. External injury marks were found on their bodies. Some residents even spotted burn injuries caused by acid on their bodies," he told the police.
On Wednesday Vijay Kumar Rai, whose son Amit Kumar died in the incident, had said how all five children drowned should be probed. He had also wondered why nobody raised an alarm or tried to save them.
District administration officials, however, claimed that the children had drowned while taking a bath in the seasonal water body.
The boys' clothes were found on the bank of the water body. The post-mortem report, too, suggested death by drowning.
The mortal remains of the five boys - Raj Kumar, 14, Vicky, 15, Amit, 7, Uday, 8, and Karan, 11 - were consigned to flames in the presence of district administration officials on Wednesday. Sahebganj circle officer Anil Kumar was present there.
The circle officer told relatives of the boys that they would be provided a cheque of Rs 4 lakh each and ex-gratia payment in the next few days. District magistrate Dharmendra Kumar has already recommended payment of compensation to family members of the boys.
