Ghaziabad: 5-year-old boy says he saw father kill his mother, cops to exhume body for autopsy

The child told his uncle that he saw his father beat his mother and then smother her with a pillow on the intervening night of August 19/20, police said

The Ghaziabad police is preparing to exhume the body of a 27-year-old woman who died on August 20, after her five-year-old son told his uncle that he saw his father beat her up and then smother her with a pillow on the intervening night of August 19/20, senior police officers said on Thursday.

27-year-old Rukhsar who died on August 20. Her in-laws told her family that she died of an ailment. (HT Photo)

Police said after the child’s revelation, they \registered an FIR of murder in connection with the woman’s death and started legal proceedings to exhume the body buried in Pilkhuwa.

Police identified the woman as Rukhsar (single name), and said she got married to Mohammad Shahnawaz, a resident of Pilkhuwa in Hapur district, about eight years ago. The couple had two children – a daughter aged seven years and a son aged five years.

In his complaint to the police, Rukhsar’s brother Mohammed Imran said fights were common between the couple and his sister was often subjected to domestic violence.

“My brother-in-law used to beat up my sister and kept saying he suspected her character. Whenever she complained to us, we would meet with Shahnawaz and try to patch things up. About eight months ago, she again returned to our house in Pilkhuwa and stayed there after Shahnawaz beat her up. However, with the intervention of the elders of the two families, Shahnawaz again took her back with him and both started living in a rented house in Masuri (Ghaziabad),” Imran said in his complaint to Masuri police station in Ghaziabad.

He said on August 20, Rukhsar’s in-laws called and told him that she died of some ailment.

“Later, we brought her body to Pilkhuwa and buried it there. However, my five-year-old nephew on August 21 told us that his father, on the intervening night of August 19/20, beat up his mother severely and later smothered (suffocated) her with a pillow, killing her. We immediately informed the police in Pilkhuwa and later reached out to Ghaziabad police for help,” Imran said.

Based on his complaint, the Ghaziabad police registered an FIR against Shahnawaz and one of his nephews at Masuri police station under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Section 103(1) (murder) on Thursday.

“We have registered an FIR in this connection after the woman’s minor son said he saw her being killed. This will be investigated. We are preparing to exhume the body from Pilkhuwa and permissions will be taken from a magistrate in this regard. Once exhumed, the body will be sent for an autopsy to identify the cause of death. The woman’s in-laws had earlier claimed that she died of an ailment. They will also be questioned,” said Naresh Kumar, assistant commissioner of police, Masuri/Muradnagar.