Thane, Feb 20 (PTI) A court in Maharashtra's Thane district on Saturday sentenced a man to imprisonment for life for kidnapping and killing a seven-year-old boy and burying his body.

Additional sessions judge R R Vaishnav convicted Santosh Sharma (30), a painter from Mumbra, under sections 302 (murder) and 363 (kidnapping) of the IPC and sentenced him to imprisonment for life.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 7,000 on the accused.

District government pleader and public prosecutor Sanjay Londhe told the court that on November 11, 2016, the victim, who was playing near his house, went missing.

A missing person's report was filed with the police and the probe revealed that the accused had kidnapped the boy, taken him to an isolated house, where he strangled him and bludgeoned him with a stone.

The accused then buried the victim's body on the floor of the house.

The police subsequently recovered the body and arrested the accused.

The accused was having an affair with the victim's mother, which is why he wished to get rid of him, the court was informed.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)