UP: Boy strangled, buried in cane field by uncle, cousin for money

PTI, Dec 21, 2022, 12:15 PM IST

A seven-year-old boy who was missing for the last five days was found dead in a sugarcane field here, allegedly killed by his uncle and cousin, police said on Wednesday.

Three people, including the uncle and cousin, have been detained by police in connection with the murder of the boy.

According to the police, the child’s uncle, cousin, and a third man had abducted the boy to extort money – according to them Rs 30-40 lakh – from the boy’s father. The boy’s grandfather had recently retired from government service and received a lot of cash with which he had bought some land too.

The boy, Shaurya alias Suryansh, had gone missing on December 15 while on his way back from tuition class.

On the complaint of the boy’s father Sohanbir, a resident of Fakharpur, police filed an FIR and began an investigation into the matter, Superintendent of Police Neeraj Kumar Jadaun said.

During their investigation, police suspected the roles of Shaurya’s uncle Vineet, his cousin Akshit, and a third named Danny.

The three during interrogation confessed to have abducted and killed Shaurya, the SP said. At their instance, police recovered Shaurya’s body on Tuesday from a sugarcane field, about 1.5 km away from his village. The post mortem of his body was done at night on the request of the family members, the SP said.

The accused told police that Shaurya was very fond of riding a motorcycle and on December 15 when he was returning from classes, they lured him with an offer of a bike ride. The three men had planned to make a ransom call after the matter had cooled down a little. But, according to their own confession, they had to kill the boy because he knew them all and could identify them.

They strangled the boy, put his body into a sack, and buried him in the sugarcane field, police said.

Lest they be suspected, the three accused joined the family members too in their search for the boy.