Melattur (Malappuram): The accused in the murder of a nine-year-old boy has told the police that he ensured the boy was dead before he left the spot. He is the paternal uncle of the victim.
The boy who had gone missing nearly a fortnight ago was thrown in the river by the accused, Edayattur Makkarathodi Muhammad. He lifted the boy, Muhammad Shaheen, in the guise of seating him on the bike but threw him in the river from Anakkayam bridge instead, the accused told the cops.
Muhammad watched Shaheen drown before he left the spot. He told the cops that he killed the boy to grab gold from the boy’s father. The abduction was carried out in the belief that Shaheen's father has some 3 kg of gold in his possession. Muhammad had planned to keep the boy captive and demand a portion of the gold as ransom from his father.
Shaheen is the son of Edayattur Makkarathodi Abdulsalam and Haseena and a student at DNM AUP School. The police, along with the fire force and volunteers, are continuing their search for the boy's body in the swollen Kadalundi river.
The accused, who has been arrested by the cops, will be presented before the Nilambur first-class magistrate's court.
Shaheen went missing on August 13. Muhammad took advantage of his intimacy with the boy to take him from near his school on his bike. Muhammad roamed around with the boy on his bike during day. He got scared when he came to know that news about the abduction of the child was circulating on social media. When he suspected that the cops were closing in on him, he threw him in the river at night.
