A Delhi man allegedly murdered a seven-year-old boy and spent over a month in a room with the body and dead rats, police said on Tuesday.

Whenever neighbours complained about the foul smell, the 27-year-old would blame it on the rodents and throw out one of the carcasses in their presence to satisfy their curiosity.

The accused has been identified as Avadesh Kumar, a resident of northwest Delhis Swaroop Nagar area, and a distant relative of the victim. He had fallen out with the childs parents and wanted revenge while also looking to extort money from them.

Kumar put the childs body in a suitcase inside the room and also killed a few rats and place them around to camouflage the stink. The kid, Aditya (name changed), went missing on January 7 around 6pm.

Kumar killed him within a few minutes. Adityas parents had registered missing complaint at Swaroop Nagar police station and Kumar accompanied them without any fear to avoid falling in the ambit of suspects.

During investigation, police teams examined all the CCTV camera footage, took help of local surveillance but did not get any solid lead, said Aslam Khan,

DCP of northwest district. Kumar was very confident in his statement to police. The needle of suspicion turned towards him when a neighbour informed cops about the stench emanating from his room.

THE DEAD RAT ANGLE

We were treating it as a missing case till the neighbour mentioned the dead rat angle which struck the investigating officers. When Kumar was initially asked to clarify, he gave the same excuse and mentioned that rats exist in large numbers in the area and some often die in his room, Khan said.

The explanation of Kumar failed to satisfy investigators. We decided to search his room. The accused picked up a dead rat lying near the suitcase before the police personnel. As the foul smell was very high near the bag, the cops asked Kumar to open it. He kept on harping on the rats but his lie was caught as soon as the suitcase was opened and Adityas decomposed body was found, the DCP said.

Kumar initially lived with the victims parents and also helped run their business. He tried to charm them by falsely claiming that he had a job with the CBI. He told cops that he was preparing for various recruitment examinations and had appeared for the UPSC civil services exam last year.

He separated from the family after some differences emerged. During interrogation, Kumar told police that the victims father would frequently abuse him and did not like his visits in house.

Aditya, who called Kumar uncle, visited his room on the day of crime. He asked Aditya about his parents behaviour towards him. When the victim told him that his father often abused him in the house, the accused, in a fit of rage, smothered the child using a muffler, Khan said.

The accused did not try to dump the body over fear of getting caught by the CCTV cameras installed at the corner of his street.

He was aiming to extort Rs 15 to Rs 20 lakh from his parents. The body was sent for postmortem.