The uncle of the Class V student whose partly decomposed body was found in a dilapidated toilet in Barasat's Kazipara has reportedly told police that he had killed the boy because of a property dispute with his father, officers in the Barasat police district said on Sunday.

Enger Nabi, the uncle, was arrested on the murder charge on June 20. He has since been in police custody.

The superintendent of police, Barasat, Pratiksha Jharkhariya, said on Sunday that Nabi admitted during questioning that he had murdered the boy.

“Several days before the boy went missing, Nabi had been involved in an altercation with his brother (the child's father) over their ancestral property. The boy pushed and shoved Nabi. He told us that he killed the boy because he wanted to teach his brother a lesson," Jharkhariya said.

The officer said Nabi had tried to mislead the cops multiple times. He had allegedly poured a red liquid on walls of a neighbour's house to give the impression that residents of the house had killed the boy.

“A forensic team had collected samples from the walls of the neighbour's house. It wasn't human blood. He tried to mislead us several times. But his statements kept changing and we kept questioning him. He finally broke down and told us that he had killed the boy as an act of revenge,” Jharkariya said.

The boy had gone missing after stepping out of his home on June 9. His body was found on June 13.

Residents of the area alerted the cops after a foul smell started emanating from a toilet, a senior officer in the Barasat police district said.

The recovery of the boy's body sparked rumours on social media that a gang of child lifters was active in the area.

On Wednesday, two men and a woman were assaulted at two places in Barasat by large groups of men and women who suspected them to be child-lifters.

On Saturday night, a specially abled woman who was cycling back home was beaten up by a group in Ashokenagar, around 21km from Barasat. The police said the group thought the woman was a child-lifter.

Thirty-four people have been arrested in Barasat and Ashokenagar for the assaults.