The boy went missing on Wednesday after attending tuition classes and was reportedly last seen with one of the accused, identified as Shailendra Kumar Nigam, also known as Mantu.
LUCKNOW — A 7-year-old Muslim boy named Shahzeb was found brutally murdered near his home when he was kidnapped in the Sidhari town of UP’s Azamgarh on Thursday, September 24.
The boy went missing on Wednesday after attending tuition classes and was reportedly last seen with one of the accused, identified as Shailendra Kumar Nigam, also known as Mantu.
According to police, the accused had taken the child on the pretext of an outing while he was playing on a swing from where he went missing, TNIE reported.
A missing complaint was filed on Wednesday evening by the child’s family at the Sidhari Police Station, and a case was registered under Section 137(2) BNS.
On Thursday morning, the boy’s severely mutilated body was found stuffed inside a gunny bag and hanging from a neighbour’s gate in Pathani Tola, according to police officials.
Later on Thursday, Shailendra Kumar Nigam and another man identified as Raja Nigam were arrested. in a joint operation by Siddharth and Mubarakpur police while allegedly attempting to flee near the dental college in Itoura. The duo allegedly fired at the officers prompting the police to open retaliatory fire, resulting in injuries for both the accused.
According to Shahzeb’s father, Saheb Alam, their family maintained good relations with Nigam and his family.
“I don’t know why they did this to us,” Alam was quoted as saying by Maktoob Media.
Sources said that both the accused had kept visiting the boy’s house to inquire if he was found after police launched a search operation on Wednesday.
The killing has sparked nationwide outrage with Congress leader Pawan Khera condemning it as a consequence of normalising “hateful rhetoric.”
“What a diseased, rotten society we have been reduced to that a Hindu neighbour can murder a seven-year-old muslim boy, stuff his dead body into a gunny bag and hang him from a gate just so he could teach a lesson to the ‘Mullahs.’ Repeat this in your heads – 7 year old child,” Khera wrote in post on X.
“This is what hateful rhetoric does – it normalises hatred, violence & cruelty. This is not a momentary lapse in humanity. It is terror, plain and deliberate – rehearsed in cruelty, protected by silence, legitimised by impunity,” he said.
