‘Someone close to family murdered boy’

GHAZIABAD: More than a day after the decomposed body of a four-and-a-half year old boy, who had gone missing from his home 18 months ago, was found stuffed inside a wooden crate on the terrace of his neighbour’s house, the police are yet to get any clue in the case.
The only lead the police have is two suspects, Irfaan and Aftab, who they had arrested last December for making ransom calls to the family. The duo had claimed they did not kidnap the boy, but had heard he was missing and saw it as an opportunity to make quick money. They are now out on bail.

An autopsy was conducted on Monday, but it did not yield any results. “Neither the cause, nor the date and time of death could be ascertained from the post-mortem. The remains will be sent to a forensic science laboratory for analysis. It is obvious that the body had been placed in the crate on the terrace of Mobin’s barsati room by someone who had access to the houses of either one or both the families. The role of a person known to the family cannot be ruled out. The two suspects did not have access to these two houses. However, we are likely to interrogate them again,” deputy superintendent of police, Rakesh Kumar Mishra, told TOI.

The crate, along with other discarded household items, had been dumped on the terrace by Mobin’s family. Mobin lives with his two sons — Nadeem and Wasim — in the house adjacent to that of Zaid’s family.

On Monday, Zaid’s father met the police at Sahibabad police station demanding a fair inquiry. “We didn’t have any past incidents of enmity with anyone. So we haven’t cast suspicion on anyone in particular for my son’s disappearance and death. Police told us on Monday that someone close to our family could have committed the crime,” Nazar told TOI.

Nazar said when he was searching for Zaid during the 18 months when he was missing, he had visited a number of shelter homes too.