“I have severed relations with my brother after he tried to kill my son. I had taken care of him since he was eight. I left my studies to pay for his education, but this is how he repaid me,” said Ismail Punjabi (45), the undertaker of the graveyard at Marine Lines.
His brother, Mahammed
Idris (37), had kidnapped and tried to kill his seven-year-old son, Ahmed, on February 26 over a dispute over a three-acre land in Aurangabad.
Idris, in his statement, said he was regretting his act and asked his brother to forgive him, the police said on Thursday.
The family has now asked community leaders to intervene and settle the property dispute within the family. Ahmed was playing in his locality around 9 pm when Idris told that he was taking him to Chowpatty on his bike.
Idris took Ahmed to a jungle in Panvel, tried to strangulate him with a wire, rubbed his face in the mud till he was unconscious and left him to die.
“When I regained consciousness, I found myself alone. My neck was paining. I freed my hands of the wire uncle had tied me with and found my way to the highway. I tried to flag the cars passing by,” said Ahmed.
A car halted on seeing the boy crying. “I knew my father’s mobile number and the uncle in the car asked me to call my father,” added Ahmed.
Punjabi, a taxi driver, received Ahmed’s call at 12.30 am. “I am grateful that my son remembers my mobile number.”
The occupants of the car handed Ahmed over to the police. The police arrested Idris from his house.