Boy found with slit throat, uncle held

TT, Malda, July 3: A boy who had lost her parents a few years ago and used to stay with his father's brother was found murdered in a Harishchandrapur village this morning.

Villagers alleged that Sahidul Islam, 11, had been murdered by his uncle Abul Gafur to take possession of the property in the boy's name.

Based on the villagers' complaint, Harishchandrapur police arrested Gafur. He said he had been taking care of his nephew and the local people had levelled the murder charge out of jealousy.

Sahidul, a Class V student, was found dead in a paddy field, around 500 metres from his uncle's house, at Alamganj this morning. He had his throat slit and was lying in a pool of blood. "The boy's parents had died because of some diseases about three-four years back. Since then, he had been staying with his uncle Gafur," said Hayat Sheikh, a villager.

Soon after the body had been found, the local people barged into Gafur's house. "Gafur was wearing a T-shirt that had blood marks. As we went to his home to ask about the boy, he changed the T-shirt. He also had blood marks on the limbs and quickly cleaned them," Siraj Sheikh, another villager, said.

When the police reached the spot, the local people stopped them from taking away the body and demanded Gafur's arrest.

"Other than Sahidul's father, Gafur has three other brothers. The family owns around five bighas of land and a house. Each brother is the owner of a bigha of plot and has a share in the house. Gafur eliminated Sahidul to grab his property. We suspect the boy was taken to the paddy field by Gafur who then slit his throat," said another villager Maidul Sheikh.

The police arrested Gafur as a number of villagers, including Maidul, Hayat and Siraj, filed a written complaint, accusing him of murdering the boy.

The accused, police sources said, claimed that he had been falsely implicated. "Gafur told us that he had been taking care of his nephew and there was no question of killing him. He said a section of villagers was jealous of him and wanted to frame him in the case, " a police official said.

Rana Mukherjee, the subdivisional police officer of Harishchandrapur, said: "We are investigating the case to find out the motive behind the murder and whether somebody else was involved in it."