Body of missing 11-year-old found in Kothrud
The Pune police discovered the body of a 11-year-old boy who was reported missing on Friday night from his home in Kelewadi area of Kothrud
The Pune police discovered the body of a 11-year-old boy who was reported missing on Friday night from his home in Kelewadi area of Kothrud.
The 11-year-old boy, a Class 5 student at a school in Gokahlenagar, had left home at 4:30pm on Friday and told his parents that he was heading out to play with his friends, according to the complaint. However, his parents had approached the police as the child failed to reach home even after late hours of the night.
Additional commissioner of police Ashok Morale along with deputy commissioner of police Pournima Gaikwad were questioning multiple people to identify suspects in the case.
“We had deployed the dog squad and made teams that were tracking him. We went through the forest area, chambers, and all possible spots to find him once we suspected foul play,” said senior police inspector Meghshyam Dange of Kothrud police station.
The boy’s body was found with injuries on his back and back of the head that were visibly caused by a blunt object, according to the officials who found him.
{{/usCountry}}The boy’s body was found with injuries on his back and back of the head that were visibly caused by a blunt object, according to the officials who found him.
{{/usCountry}}“We were following leads since that night. We were searching near his house when we realised that a small lane connected the slum area with an open ground near Garware college. The open ground has a compound that is almost seven feet high and is partially concrete and partially made of tin sheets. There was a gaping hole in the tin sheet which was used to throw garbage towards the other side. We forced open a nearby gate and searched inside the compound to find colours matching the description of his clothes provided by his parents,” said police sub-inspector Bhairavnath Shelke of Kothrud police station, who found the body.
{{/usCountry}}“We were following leads since that night. We were searching near his house when we realised that a small lane connected the slum area with an open ground near Garware college. The open ground has a compound that is almost seven feet high and is partially concrete and partially made of tin sheets. There was a gaping hole in the tin sheet which was used to throw garbage towards the other side. We forced open a nearby gate and searched inside the compound to find colours matching the description of his clothes provided by his parents,” said police sub-inspector Bhairavnath Shelke of Kothrud police station, who found the body.
{{/usCountry}}The police suspect that the boy was coaxed into going to the spot and then killed there with a blunt object. The body was sent to Sassoon General Hospital for post-mortem after which it was handed over to his parents.
The child lived with his parents and an elder brother and a sister. The mother worked as a cleaning supervisor while the father did odd jobs at construction sites whenever available, according to their neighbours.
“The family had moved here at the beginning of 2020. Then, the lockdown happened. In September, they had moved to a room adjacent to the one they had moved into initially. The child had gotten along well with the children in the colony. We barely saw him get in an argument. His parents used to have occasional fights,” said a woman who lives in the house next to the boy’s family, but did not wish to be named.
A case under Sections 363 (kidnapping) and 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered at Kothrud police station.