Bhubaneswar: Police on Monday arrested a 48-year-old man for crushing the head of an eight-year-old boy after forcing him to perform "unnatural sex" at Pipili in Puri district.

The cops rescued the boy, who went missing on Sunday afternoon, with multiple head injuries around midnight.

The police said Jumma Khan, a rickshaw puller, lured the victim to a garden. "He later took him to an under-construction house and forced him to perform unnatural sex. When the victim threatened to disclose the matter, Khan crushed his head with a stone and dumped him on the spot thinking that he was dead," said Pipili police station inspector-in-charge Sarat Chandra Sahu.

The boy's father, a marble mason, lodged a formal complaint with the police after he failed to trace the boy. "The accused and the victim hail from the same neighbourhood," said a police officer.

The victim was first rushed to the nearest hospital from where he was shifted to Capital Hospital here. Later, he was shifted to a private hospital before being shifted to another private hospital. Doctors at the private hospital said his condition was critical.

"The accused confessed to the crime and has been forwarded to court," added Sahu.