A four-year-old boy who went missing from his school premises on Thursday, was found dead inside the school premises in Bihar’s Digha area on Friday, police said.

According to police, the boy, a resident of Digha-Polson Road in the state capital Patna, went to school on Thursday morning but did not return home till afternoon.

His family members contacted his friends, school teachers and launched search operations in the locality to no avail after which they approached police.

“A case of kidnapping was registered, and investigation was taken up. The child’s body was finally found at around 3am in a drain of the school premises. It was identified by the boy’s father Shailendra Rai,” a police official said.

A post-mortem was conducted at Patna Medical college and Hospital, but the official said the exact reason of death is yet to be ascertained.

The child’s family has alleged foul play suspecting enmity with their family, and someone might have murdered the child. The boy studied in the school and also attended tuition classes on the school premises.

According to the child’s father, his son went to school around 6am but did not return home till 5pm. Earlier, the school principal said that the boy did not attend his class on Thursday.

However, CCTV footages of the school shows that he attended the school. Police said that the school authority tampered with footage for over ten minutes.

“Prima facie police found that the boy fell from a slider, that is captured in the CCTV. The boy attended classes till 12pm and later he attended tuition (coaching class) till 2:30pm. After falling from the slider, the boy sustained head injuries and became unconscious. School director-cum-principal’s son, took the boy and dumped him in the drain near a classroom,” said SSP Rajeev Mishra, adding that school principal and her son were taken into custody for further