The police on Tuesday recovered the body of a seven-year-old boy who went missing from Delhi’s Swaroop Nagar locality on January 7, the Hindustan Times reported. The body was found bundled in a suitcase at nearby Nathupura village in the western part of the city, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest) Aslam Khan said.

The police have arrested 27-year-old Avadesh Sakya, who used to be a tenant at the boy’s house, for the murder. Sakya was allegedly angry with the boy’s parents as they had stopped their son from meeting and talking to him, The Indian Express reported. On January 6, the boy reportedly told Sakya that his father had asked him to stay away from him. “On [hearing] this he got angry and smothered the child with a muffler and stuffed the body in a suitcase,” The Indian Express quoted an unidentified police officer as saying.

Sakya continued visiting the boy’s house after allegedly committing the crime, and also accompanied the boy’s father to the police station when he went to lodge the missing persons’ complaint. Sakya reportedly told his neighbours that the foul smell emanating from his house was because of dead rats. Sakya could not dump the body as there was constant police presence in the area since the the boy had disappeared, The Indian Express reported.

The boy’s body has been sent for autopsy and the police have registered a case against Sakya at Swaroop Nagar police station.