Greater Noida: A four-year-old boy, whose decomposed body was found with a biscuit in hand in a swamp 1.5km from his house in Surajpur, was allegedly smothered by two neighbourhood men who did not know where to keep the child.
Hrithik, the youngest of three siblings, had been reported missing from near his house on January 24. His family, who had alleged police inaction in tracing the child, had raised suspicion on two men who had arrived in the village just a few days before Hrithik went missing. While one of the accused, Anil, was arrested, the other, Vijay, is on the run.
“Anil told us they smothered the child the same day they abducted him. They did not know where to keep the boy as his parents had already approached the police. They also planned to demand ransom from the boy’s family, but got scared when we started an investigation into the case and police movement in the village increased,” said DCP (central Noida) Harish Chander.
The boy’s family, however, alleged that Hrithik had been attacked with a stone and his head was split into two. “The body had decomposed. It seems someone had lured him with biscuits. I wanted to speak to Anil and ask him what exactly happened to my child, but the police did not allow me to do so,” said Brahmdutt, Hrithik’s father who runs a shop from his rented accommodation.
After he went missing, the boy’s elder brother Raja (9), a thalassemia patient, and sister Radhika (5), had gone around the village asking everyone if they had spotted Hrithik. They had also made posters urging people to look for the boy.
According to the family, while Anil was untraceable a day before Hrithik went missing, Vijay left the area the next day. However, soon after the family informed police, Vijay’s house in the village was searched and his wife was questioned.
Hrithik’s family also said they had seen a few marbles that the boy would play with in Vijay’s house. “They had come to the locality on January 10. They are from Kannauj. About two-three days later, Vijay’s wife was questioned and a few marbles were recovered from their house. Soon after, his wife, too, went missing,” said Brahmdutt.
The father said he had spoken to Vijay over the phone on February 8 and asked him to return his son if he had abducted him. “He claimed he did not have the child with him. However, some of the villagers had been telling us that someone we knew had our son,” he added.