Woman, 5-year-old son found murdered in Ayodhya’s slum

The inspector said although the deceased woman and her other family members had identity proofs of Assam’s Barpeta district, they are suspected to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

The blood-soaked bodies of a rag picker’s 29-year-old wife and 5-year-old son were found in a slum under Ayodhya city police station limits on Saturday. Police suspected that the ragpicker, who was found missing, could be involved in the killing over some family issue.

For representation only. (Sourced)

According to inspector in-charge of Ayodhya City Kotwali, Ashwani Kumar Pandey, the victims were identified as Nesiya Begum and her son Shahdkar Khandkar, who were living in a hut in a slum in Bachda Sultanpur village. Initial investigations revealed that the deceased woman, along with her husband Shahjaan Khandkar (32) and two sons, the deceased and his elder brother Nebutullah (10), had been living in the slum, where around 20 more rag-picker families live in shanties, for the last 10 months.

The inspector said although the deceased woman and her other family members had identity proofs of Assam’s Barpeta district, they are suspected to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. He claimed some of the relatives of Shahjaan, who also live in the slum, suggested he migrated to Ayodhya for employment.

Pandey stated the initial examination of the bodies suggested that the woman’s throat was slit while the child was smothered to death. He said the couple’s elder son informed the police that their parents had a brawl over some issue the previous night, which could be the apparent reason behind the double murder.

“We are sending a police team to Assam’s Barpeta as the suspect is likely to have returned there after committing the crime. Besides, a team has been deployed at bus and railway stations to trace the suspect,” he emphasised.