Ex-neighbour arrested for drowning 11-yr-old in river
LUDHIANA: Police on Tuesday arrested a 30-year-old man for allegedly drowning his former neighbour’s 11-year-old son who was missing since from his house in Industrial Area near Cheema Chowk since July 27 .
The police said the accused, Ajmal Alam, who hails from Delhi, committed the crime over a grudge he had with the family.
Kune Lal, father of the victim, Varinder Kumar, had lodged a missing report at the Division number 2 police station.
Additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP) Gurpreet Singh told reporters that the accused had confessed to the crime during interrogation. “Ajmal forcibly took Varinder to have a bath in the river and drowned him in it with force. He left the body in the river and returned home,” he added.
He added that even as Varinder had drowned the same day, on August 4, the family received a ransom call of ₹2 lakh to be deposited in an account. The family informed the police, but the number from which they received the call was found to be switched off.
“At this stage, the family told us that they suspected Ajmal, their erstwhile neighbour, to be behind the crime.” the ADCP added. It turned out that Ajmal and the family were neighbours around four years ago when the victim Varinder’s sister and Ajmal were in a relationship.
When the girl’s father, Lal, came to know of the relationship, he abused Ajmal’s mother, also creating a scene in the entire neighbourhood. A few days after that incident, the Ajmal family shifted to Kaithal in Haryana.
The ADCP added, “On the family’s prodding, even we got suspicious. We formed a team and traced Ajmal’s location. Our team conducted raids in Kaithal for two days. From there we came to know that Ajmal was now working at a boutique in Batla House in Delhi. On Tuesday night, our team nabbed him,” he said. On sustained interrogation, Ajmal confessed to have murdered the child. The ADCP added that a team of swimmers had been formed to search for Varinder’s body.
BOY LURED TO AMUSEMENT PARK
The ADCP added that Ajmal had abducted the boy by luring him with the promise of taking him to the Hardy’s World, an amusement park. He took a threewheeler from the Kwality Chowk, but got down near the Sutlej bridge.