Police probing the murder of Deep Haldar, 8, in Balurghat town on Sunday night arrested an aunt of Manas Singh, the main accused.

Manas, his parents and sisters were already arrested earlier in the day.

Deep, who used to stay with his grandmother Dipti Mohanta went missing on Saturday. It was learnt that local youth Manas abducted him.

Deep’s grandmother filed a missing diary on Sunday.

“During probe, we came to know Manas and his family are involved.... During interrogation, they said Manas

had a dispute with the boy over tearing a kite and thus they killed him and disposed his body in a canal,” said Rahul Dey, the South Dinajpur SP.

Manas, his parents, sister and aunt have been arrested. On Monday, all five were produced at a local court and sent to police custody for 10 days.

“We need to interrogate them to gather more information on the crime and motive,” said a police officer.

Tension simmered across Balurghat town over the murder. “Police are saying that the boy was murdered over a trifle. But we suspect the family planned to hand over the boy to some people for money. Police should find the truth,” said councillor Bipul Kanti Ghosh.

Teen ‘electrocuted’

Avik Das, 17, a Class XII student of Ukilpara of Raiganj town was found dead at home on Sunday night. Police suspect electrocution. Post-mortem report is awaited.

Bereaved father Ashok Das, a professor of mathematics at Raiganj University, said he and his wife returned home at 11.30pm to find Avik lying in his room with electric wires around his body.

The teenager had an affinity towards scientific experiments which might have led to the incident. The parents rushed him to hospital where doctors pronounced him dead.