Five minor students of a madrasa in Odisha`s Nayagarh district were arrested by police for allegedly killing a 12-year-old boy of the institution and dumping his body into a septic tank, an officer said on Sunday.

The incident occurred on September 2 at a madrasa located within the Ranpur police station limits of Nayagarh district. The police registered a case on September 3, and the five accused minor boys in the age group of 12 to 15 years have been taken into custody on Saturday, Nayagarh, Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP), Subhas Chandra Panda told PTI.

The preliminary investigation revealed that the victim boy, who hailed from the Badamba area in Cuttack district, had allegedly threatened seniors of exposing their act of sexual abuse of junior students. The victim was allegedly sexually abused by a senior inmate of the madrasa for the last six months, and there was an attempt to kill him also on August 31, the ASP said.