A five-year old boy and a 35-year-old woman were killed in the capital in two separate cases.

Himanshu Kumar, 5, was found strangled to death around 1km from his home at Niche Tola in Chatakpur under Ratu police station area on Saturday. The other victim, Geeta Devi, a mother of three, was found dead with a bullet in her stomach at Itki police station area on Saturday.

Both murders had been committed on Friday or the intervening night between Friday and Saturday, police sources have said.

Himanshu, the youngest son of auto-rickshaw driver Sanjay Jha was last seen playing in front of his home on Friday afternoon by his mother Rupam. When she again came to check on him at 3pm, he had disappeared. Though the family searched for the boy and informed police, he remained traceless. On Saturday morning, his body was found beside Soso pond, 1km from home.

A Ratu policeman said probe was on to find the reason behind the kidnap and murder. No one has been held.

In the Geeta Devi murder case, police suspect her friend Shashi Sahu, 38, to be behind her death.

Itki OC Prithvi Sen Das said that Geeta Devi was married and the mother of three children, but stayed at her father’s house at Gargaon, 30km from the city under Itki police station area, where she developed a relationship with Sahu.

“On Friday around 8.30pm, Sahu went to her house in a drunken state and forced her out. On Saturday morning, her body was found while Sahu is absconding. We are probing why Sahu killed her or if there is any other aspect to the case. Two persons have been detained,” the OC said.