A seven-year-old child from Bengaluru who went missing last week has been declared dead after the police found his body in a pond nearby.

Elvin D’Souza, a child with special needs went missing from outside his home in Sarjapura area on Thursday. Elvin was a student of the KiDeens school.  

Sources close to the family and a missing child poster that was circulated in his name earlier this week suggested that the child ventured outside the house when the mother was distracted by a service technician who came to fix their washing machine. By the time the mother noticed, Elvin was missing.

The parents filed a complaint with the police on Thursday following a search that began for the child. According to the police, Elvin’s bicycle and slippers were found near a small pond in Sarjapur on Friday morning.

On suspecting that he might have drowned, police searched the pond and recovered his body shortly after. Prima facie, it is suspected that Elvin was cycling without the knowledge of his parents when he accidentally fell into the pond.

However, police have converted the missing person complaint into a one of unnatural death.