Rajkot: An eight-year-old boy was kidnapped and strangled to death for resisting sexual assault allegedly by a 34-year-old man in Bhaktinagar area of Rajkot on Saturday.Body of Vishwas Baria, who had gone missing two days ago, was found packed inside a plastic bag near Gondal Chowkdi early morning on Saturday.Police on Saturday arrested Bittu Jhimar (34), a native of Uttar Pradesh, who during interrogation confessed that he had kidnapped Vishwas with an intent of sodomizing him on Thursday night. But when the boy resisted, he strangled him with a towel and dumped his body near Gondal Chowkdi.Vishwas lived with his father’s uncle Jamal in the slums near Pawanputra Chowk in Bhaktinagar area of the city. He used to sleep with other boys his age in a tent where Jhimar used to sell shoes during the day time.On Friday morning, Vishwas’s father Iman Baria, a native of Jambua in Madhya Pradesh lodged a complaint with Bhaktinagar police station stating that his eight-year-son was missing since Thursday night. He was informed by Jamal after Vishwas did not return home on Friday morning.When Jamal had confronted Jhimar about Vishwas, he was told that the boy had left early in the morning. Interestingly, Jhimar too had joined Iman and Jamal in searching Vishwas. According to Jhimar, Vishwas woke up early on Friday and went to Jamal’s house.During investigation, Bhaktinagar police inspector V K Gadhvi scanned through CCTV footages of nearby shops and found a man near the slum carrying a big bag on his bike at around 4.30am. “From the look and body structure we got suspicious that the man was Jhimar,” Gadhvi said.“When questioned, Jhimar confessed that he had asked Vishwas to come to a nearby tent with him with the intention of sodomizing him. But Vishwas started screaming. So, Jhimar strangled the boy with a towel and then dumped the body in the bushes near Gondal Chowkdi,” Gadhvi said.Vishwas was studying in class I at a government school and used to work at the farm of one Raju Jadav. As his father did not have enough space, Vishwas was living with Jamal.The deceased and other boys used to sleep in Jhimar’s tent at night because they didn’t have enough space in the shanty.

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