AGRA: A 38-year-old woman was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly beating and smothering her 5-year-old nephew to death three days ago after he passed stool on the bed in Farrukhabad’s New Fauji colony. The boy’s body, which was buried in a 7-foot deep pit in a jungle by the woman in connivance with her father, was recovered by the police. Her father has been arrested too.
Police said, the victim Yash Pratap’s uncle Shailendra Singh informed police on Monday about the missing child from a fair, where he had gone with his aunt Neeraj. A kidnapping FIR was lodged into the matter. However, police did not spot Yash with Neeraj while scanning CCTV footage of the area.
Yash’s father, Brijendra Singh, who lives in Etah district, said that his sister-in-law Neeraj told him on February 7 that his son has been missing from the fair. Next morning, she changed her statement and told him that she took Yash out of the house and closed the doors after she got furious when he soiled the bed. Later, when she opened the doors after 45 minutes, the boy was not there.
Police got suspicious after seeing CCTV footage and the woman changing her statements. After persuasive interrogation, she finally admitted committing crime and took the police where she had buried the body with the help of her 65-year-old father Ram Bahadur.
Superintendent of Police (SP) Farrukhabad Ashok Kumar Meena told TOI during interrogation she told the police that after beating her nephew to death, she called her father and informed about the incident. Ram Bahadur, who lives 60 km away from Neeraj’s house, advised her to bring the body to his place in Kampala and he would make some arrangements.
He said that the woman took the body in a black bag to his father’s house located under Kampel police jurisdiction in an auto. The woman with the help of her father buried the boy’s body in a deep pit in a jungle belonging to the Forest department. He added that sections 302 (murder) 201 (Causing disappearance of evidence of offence) and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC have been added in the FIR. The post mortem report revealed that the boy was smothered to death, said the SP, adding that several injury marks were also found on his body.
The boy had been staying with his aunt in Farrukhabad’s New Fauji Colony for the past 7 months, as his father wanted him to be there and study with other children. While the boy’s mother passed away three years ago and grandmother after that, said police.