No watertight case against Ghaziabad man accused of killing former landlord’s son, admits police

Police admitted that they have no clinching evidence to make their case watertight against the 60-year-old man who is accused of murdering his former landlord’s son.

Hours after the Ghaziabad police on Sunday arrested a 60-year-old man for allegedly murdering his former landlord’s four-year-old son, police officers admitted that they have no clinching evidence to make their case watertight and that they are relying mostly on the confession of the accused.

Police arrested the 60- year-old man who allegedly murdered the four-year-old boy of his former landlord. (Sakib Ali/ HT Photo)

The boy had gone missing after returning from school on December 1, 2016, and his body was discovered inside a wooden chest kept on the rooftop of his neighbour’s house on June 3 this year. Following investigation, Rajendra Shah, the alleged murderer, was arrested on Sunday.

Dr Rakesh Mishra, circle officer (Sahibabad), said, “He (Shah) has confessed to the crime. We will continue our investigation to find more evidence against him. So far, we just have his confession. We are yet to recover the murder weapon. We are also awaiting the forensic report from the Agra laboratory.”

Besides the accused’s confession statement, the police claim to have a telephonic conversation between Shah and a chowkidar in his hometown in Bihar.

“When police teams went to his village Saharsa in Bihar, we met a local chowkidar and asked him to lead us to Shah. When the accused came to know that police were after him, he called the chowkidar and confessed his crime. This conversation will be used as his extra-judicial confession,” said an officer from the Sahibabad police station.

However, police officers maintained that they have lost evidence from the scene of the crime – which police now believe to be Shah’s room. Police said they were misled because two people, Irfan and Aftab, had demanded ransom from the victim’s father after seeing posters about the missing boy. The police had, hence, thought it to be a case of abduction by outsiders.

Meanwhile, the victim’s father said the accused, his first wife Noor Bano, her sister Nagina and her eight-year-old son had been staying at his house on rent, when his son went missing.

“Around 15-20 days ago, Noor Bano came to my house and asked me why I sent police to Bihar in search of Shah. Recently, Shah also called me up and asked the same question. He told me he’d come to my house on Friday. After that, police nabbed him,” the boy’s father said.

He claimed that while Noor Bano stays in Ghaziabad now, Shah lives in Bihar with his second wife .

The victim’s father said, “When police picked him up and brought him in front of me, Shah apologised to me. He said my son entered his room while he was asleep and started slapping him on his head. This irritated him and hence he stabbed him.”

However, senior superintendent of police (Ghaziabad) Vaibhav Krishna said that they don’t have much evidence in the case so far.

“We are awaiting the forensic reports which will help us know how the child died. The postmortem reports were inconclusive. We will investigate the matter further and more evidence will be collected in due course,” Krishna maintained.