GREATER NOIDA: One person was arrested and a minor detained in connection with the death of a 15-year-old boy who went missing from his house in Rabupura on Friday. The child’s body was found in a canal in Aligarh the next day. Mudit Bhati was a student of Class 10.
Police said the boy had gone to take a bath in the canal with two of his friends. It is suspected that the duo tried saving him.
When they could not, they dumped Mudit’s motorcycle and clothes in the canal to make it look like an accident, police said.
According to Mudit’s family, he left home on his motorcycle on Friday afternoon. “When he did not return till evening, people started looking for him. Later, a missing complaint was filed at Rabupura police station,” a relative said.
The boy’s father Satveer Singh said the next day, a villager showed him a WhatsApp picture of a body that Aligarh police had shared.
“We were shocked to see the image. There were some injury marks on the body and it was found about 25 km away from our house. Two of Mudit’s friends had told us that he had offered them a lift on his motorcycle to a farm near our house. While his friends stayed there to take a bath, Mudit had left,” he said.
Vishal Pandey, ADCP, Greater Noida, said an FIR had been registered against unidentified people under Section 363 (kidnapping) of the IPC.
“Post-mortem report said that the boy had drowned. We have questioned Mudit’s friends, Lokesh Kumar (22) and a 16-year-old boy who has been detained. They said that Mudit was with them but he drowned. It seems the duo got scared and they dumped Mudit’s clothes and motorcycle in the canal. They did not inform his family members or the police about the incident,” he said.
Mudit’s two-wheeler has been found in the canal. “We have lodged a case under Section 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) of the IPC. Lokesh was produced in court and sent to judicial custody. The minor has been sent to juvenile home,” Pandey said.
