Death Sentence Awarded in Brutal Murder of Minor Boy in Sanathnagar
The court also convicted another accused, Mohd Rafiq, for helping to dispose the body of the victim and destroy evidence
Hyderabad: A court in Kukatpally on Tuesday awarded the death sentence to one Imran Ali Khan for murdering a minor boy in 2023 over a financial dispute with his father, packing the body in a drum and throwing it in a canal. The court also convicted another accused, Mohd Rafiq, for helping to dispose the body of the victim and destroy evidence.
Judge M. Venkateshwara Rao, III Additional District and Sessions Judge-cum-Principal Family Court, also convicted Imran Ali Khan to life imprisonment for kidnapping, seven years imprisonment for destruction of evidence and imposed a fine of `10,000.
Rafiq, an autorickshaw driver from Erragadda, was sentenced to seven years imprisonment and six months imprisonment under Section 202 IPC.
According to the chargesheet, the victim, a Class III student aged eight years, went missing on April 20, 2023, after visiting a mosque along with his father near his residence at Allauddin Koti in Sanathnagar. His father, Wasim Khan approached the police after the child failed to return home.
Investigation revealed that Imran Ali Khan bore a grudge against the victim’s family over a `1 lakh financial dispute. Police said the accused lured the child into his house on the pretext of offering chocolates and smothered the boy and later strangled him.
According to the chargesheet, the accused tied the boy’s hands and legs, packed the body inside a plastic drum and disposed of it in a nala at Deendayalnagar with the help of co-accused Rafiq.
Inspector Muthu Yadav said, ”The compalaint was received by 9:30 pm and the first lead was CCTV analysis which was partial and captured the minor boy entering the house. It was suspicious because we did not see the boy leaving the house.” Police then arrested Imran who confessed by 12.30 am the next day and pinpointed the location where he had dumped the body. “With the water flow, we did not find it immediately. It was almost 5 in the morning when we retrieved the body and sent to postmortem.” The postmortem examination conducted at Gandhi Hospital concluded that the cause of death was ligature strangulation.
The investigation was led by Inspector Muthu Yadav and the prosecution was represented by public prosecutor G.V. Ramakrishna Rao.
Inspector Yadav said he was content with the sentence. “I have been working on this case since day one and kept following it up after I was transferred to the traffic police station. The sentence today, and the parents’ happiness with the justice they received, I have no words to express.”
