Noida: Drug Addict Arrested

Drug Addict Arrested After Boy Found With Head Thrust Into Mud

It was a horrifying sight for those who found the boy. The body of the seven-year-old lay prone on the green belt near Mahamaya flyover. His face had been pushed into the mud, seemingly with brute force.

Almost 24 hours after the murder came to light, police picked up a man as the main suspect – a 21-year-old named Babu.

The murder, according to the cops, an act of revenge by Babu, who had an altercation with the boy’s family after he told them he wanted to marry the boy’s 14-year-old sister.

Babu, police said, was arrested on Friday from near a housing society in Noida.

The boy went missing around 3 pm on Tuesday. A little before that, around noon, Babu allegedly went to the boy’s jhuggi in Salarpur along with his mother and threatened the family.

“Within hours, the boy went missing from outside the jhuggi. He had been playing with other children. We looked for him throughout the day. Later, we thought he was with one of our relatives. But he never came back,” Chandana, a relative of the boy, said.

The victim’s father collects scrap to earn a living. His mother works as a house help. The family is from the South Dinajpur district of West Bengal.

On Thursday afternoon, they got a call from the police and were told about the body.

“We were shown pictures of the boy. He had a mark on the head and the body was swollen. His feet were twisted, suggesting that he was beaten up. He had injuries on the limbs as well,” Chandana said.

An FIR was registered after the body was found.

Although the boy’s parents have alleged that Babu and his mother Jyotsna had threatened them with murder, only Babu has been booked under IPC sections 302 (murder) and 201 (disappearance of evidence).

Police said Babu is a drug addict and had been jailed twice under the NDPS Act.

Additional DCP (Noida) Ranvijay Singh said Babu and the boy’s family were not on good terms for years. “The accused person’s family had resorted to violence against the other family earlier as well,” Singh said.