Mumbai Police nab 31-year-old from Bihar for child's murder in Santacruz

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The Santacruz Police on Sunday arrested a 31-year-old man from Bihar for allegedly abducting a child from his locality and murdering him in Mumbai 10 days ago.

According to the police, the nine-year-old victim went missing on November 7 from Santacruz after coming back from the Chhath Puja festivities. While his parents went home, the boy decided to play in his locality.

When he did not return home after a while, his parents got worried and began searching for him. The next day, they approached the Santacruz Police and filed a missing complaint, following which the cops began probing the case.

Three days later, some locals complained of foul odour from the roof of a factory roof in Santacruz (West). They informed the police who opened the factory and found the boy's decomposed body from there. His parents identified him from the shirt he was wearing.

After conducting a panchnama, the cops sent the body for the post-mortem and registered a murder case against an unidentified person, an officer from Santacruz Police Station said.

Under the guidance of Circle Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Dixit Gedam, a team led by Senior Inspector Vaibhav Shingare, comprising Inspectors Jyoti Hibare and Ranjit Andhale began their investigation into the case.

The CCTV footage from the area gave them crucial evidence. In the footage, the police discovered that the accused, who is a helper in a local garment shop, was leaving the premises in a suspicious manner, with a sack on his shoulder.

Further inquiries revealed that he had fled to his hometown in Madhubani, Bihar.

One team of the Santacruz Police traveled to Bihar, where they carried out reconnaissance in Madhubani. After several hours of surveillance, they apprehended the accused. He was brought back to Mumbai and produced in a local court, which remanded him in police custody for further investigation.

According to the police, the accused took the boy to a garment factory and intended to sexually assault him, sources in Mumbai Police said. However, when the child began crying in fear, the accused panicked and strangled the boy. After realising that he was dead, the accused put the body in a sack and left it on the factory roof and fled. He first went to another factory and then fled to Bihar, the officer added.