3yearboy killed, sodomy suspected

He had gone missing from a marriage function on Friday night. His seminude body was later found in a field

LUCKNOW: A three-year-old boy was murdered, apparently after being sodomised, in Thakurganj area, said police. The boy’s badly wounded body was found lying in an open field in Thakurganj’s Gadi Peer Khan locality on Saturday morning, nearly eight hours after his disappearance from a marriage function where he had come with his mother on Friday night.

The boy’s semi-naked body was surrounded by stray dogs when locals spotted it barely 50 metres from the marriage pandal. A source said the post-mortem wxamination had revealed that he was strangled to death and stray dogs also caused multiple injuries on the body after his death. He said the doctors had sent a sample for further examination, suspecting that the boy’s was sodomised before death.

The boy’s mother has accused her estranged husband, a vegetable vendor, and his family members of murdering the boy to settle scores with her. Her brother has lodged a complaint against her husband and seven members of his family .

The boy’s mother, who has been staying with her parents for the past three months after a dispute with her husband, had earlier

lodged an FIR of dowry harassment with Chowk police.

Additional superintendent of police (ASP) West, Vikas Chandra Tripathi said the boy was last spotted alive near the stage set up at the marriage venue at around 11pm, after which he mysteriously disappeared. He said the family informed the police control-room at around 1.30 am on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday after searching for him in nearby areas.

Tripathi said the forensic team and dog squad were called at the crime scene to collect samples and get clues about the assailant.

He said the FIR had been registered on the complaint of the boy’s maternal uncle and the some people were detained for questioning .

He said the police were also scanning video footage of the marriage function to zero in on the suspects. He said some people had been taken into custody on the basis of suspicion as they were seen present near the boy .