SHILLONG: The parents of the five-year-old boy Samsad Ansari, who was kidnapped and murdered in 2011, still await justice after the High Court on Monday acquitted the boy’s uncle who was accused in the crime.
The division bench of the High Court of Meghalaya acquitted Mehboob Ansari by saying contradictions marked the police inquiry and the real culprit is still at large.
The parents, Iliaz Ansari and Aqueela Khatoon, came to know about the acquittal of Mehboob from a newspaper report.
Iliaz and Mehboob are brothers and soon after the arrest of Mehboob for the crime, his wife and children left for Bihar never to return. Mehboob, who is currently lodged at Nongpoh jail, was awarded life imprisonment by the lower court in 2016.
“We want justice and we are anxiously waiting for this,” the parents told The Shillong Times at their residence at Turaha Compound, Lower Nongrim Hills, on Tuesday evening.
Iliaz recollected the day, November 25, 2011, when his son, a kindergarten student of Arya Kanya Vidyalaya in Laitumkhrah, went missing.
For Iliaz, who ekes out a living by driving local taxi, it was a shock to know that his own brother was arrested and punished for the crime. “We want to know the truth behind the murder of our child,” said Khatoon.
Samsad was their fifth child.
Mehboob was charged with demanding ransom of Rs 3 lakh for the release of the child but the court found that the call for ransom was made to the mobile number of another relative Md Thankir Alam.
However, the call details record (CDR) of the mobile phone of the accused was not collected and Thankir Alam was never produced before the court.
There is a fear for the family whether Mehboob will do any harm to them after his release though the parents had not named him as accused.
Though the court had ordered the release of Mehboob on Monday, he is yet to be released from Nongpoh jail.
The parents do not believe the theory of the police that Mehboob committed the crime as part of child sacrifice since his wife wanted a male child as she had only female children.
The court in its 25-page order had pulled up then additional SP (crime) Vivek Syiem for bringing this strange motive.
“Lie has no leg to stand upon, what a trash statement, all along theory of the prosecution is that there were blood stains in the vehicle, if boy was taken to Laitkor (place of recovery), his face was smashed with an iron wrench and strangulated then thrown into the jungle, how the question of blood stains in the vehicle. Another motive attributed i.e. accused said that reason for killing the victim boy was to enable him to get a boy child, how that could happen. This theory is only known to a police officer (Vivek) not below the rank of Superintendent of Police,” the court said.
The court said kidnapping and killing of the boy has remained a mystery or has been made as a mystery by not investigating it properly and therefore, the actual criminal has remained to be reached.
The court further made a poignant remark, “Alas! Murder of the boy has remained a mystery and mystery compounded by the fact that in the inquest report, it is mentioned that the body was lying in between two branches of tree, head inclined towards right side, left hand upwards, the right hand downside between the branches of tree, the leg was found in a sitting position. This type of mystery could have been unfolded in case the investigating officer including police team without jumping to the conclusion for unwarranted publicity would have reached to the actual criminal that would have been a big solace to the bleeding parents.”
The division bench said they have no doubt about the fact that the actual criminal for the reason best known to the investigating agency has remained to be reached and brought to book.
“It is painful to notice a horrific murder wherein a boy of 5 years of age has been killed and then his body kept between two branches of a tree, absolutely inhuman act. To our dismay, the investigating agency has not shown their skill while investigating the case. The prosecutor who was conducting the prosecution before the Trial Court too has shown negligence by not producing important witnesses in particular Md. Thankir Alam Ansari. It is high time that the policing requires to be improved and strengthened. Investigation of such heinous cases shall invariably be got conducted through a senior police officer not below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police.”
