File picture of charred remains of a house that was set on fire by a juvenile delinquent

Paradip, July 4: An 11-year-old boy with behavioural disorder landed in cop net here for allegedly setting on fire as many as 50 houses across a number of villages near this township over a period of two months.

Villager caught the Class V student from Mangarajpur village here on Monday while he was about to set another house on fire and handed him over to the police.

A similar crime was reported recently from the neighbouring Kendrapara district where a 13-year-old girl was arrested from Nikirai village for setting ablaze about a dozen of houses.

“The boy has confessed to setting 50 houses on fire at Mangarajpur, Gandakipur, Rayit Sahi, Ucchabanandapur and Kothi villages. He also set some houses on fire while staying at his maternal uncle’s house at Gadaramita village in Kendrapara during summer vacation,” said inspector of Abhayachandrapur police station Gupteswar Bhoi.

Police sources said that during interrogation, the boy gave “elaborate and sequence-wise details” of how he set the houses on fire over a period of two months. The boy, who appeared unrepentant of his misdeeds in police custody, also claimed that he did not know setting houses on fire was a grievous offence.

Police sources revealed that the boy’s behavioural instincts and mannerism were indicative of serious psychiatric disorder.

The boy hailed from an impoverished economic background was poor in his studies. “Villagers had been spending sleepless nights because of frequent fire mishaps. Both the police and civil administration were in a fix over the unusual fire incidents. Before the arrest of the accused boy, the villagers had been considering the frequent incidents of setting houses ablaze to be an act of evil spirit,” said Surajit Das, additional district magistrate of Paradip.

Psychiatrists are of the view that it is a rare case of adolescent mental sickness.

“Such acts come under pyromania category of mental illness. The sick persons elicit sadistic gratification out of such misdeeds. Persons suffering from such sickness often find the surroundings around him to be insecure. They resort to set things on fire in self-defence in a delirious state of mind,” said Nila Madhav Rath, head of the psychiatric wing of SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack.