Police in Uttar Pradesh’s Shahjahanpur district have arrested a man who allegedly killed an 8-year-old boy for resisting an attempt to sexually assault him, officials said on Thursday.

Shahjahanpur SP Rajesh Dwivedi told PTI that the victim had gone missing from Nagla Narayanpur village on March 23.

“Based on suspicion, we spread nets across several kilometres in a local river but found no trace of the boy,” Dwivedi said.

“On April 5, some skeletal remains along with torn clothes were found in a nearby field, which the family identified as that of the missing boy,” the SP said.

During the investigation, police found that the accused from the same village took one of his nephews and the boy to the fields.

“He later sent the nephew back and tried to sexually assault the boy. When the boy raised an alarm and threatened to report the matter to his family, the accused smothered and strangled him, leading to his death,” the officer said.

The accused has been booked under the relevant sections of BNS and sent to jail, he added.