

HYDERABAD: The III Additional District and Sessions Judge Court at Kukatpally sentenced a 36-year-old man to death by hanging and another accused to seven years’ imprisonment for the murder of an eight-year-old boy in Hyderabad. The incident took place in April 2023.
Wasim Khan lodged a complaint stating that on April 20, 2023, he and his son Abdul Wahid Khan had gone to a masjid in Sanathnagar for namaz. After returning home, Wasim realised that his son had not come back. He searched nearby areas before approaching the Sanathnagar police and lodging a missing persons complaint.
During the investigation, police examined CCTV footage and found that the boy had been taken by Imran Ali Khan alias Fiza to his residence on the pretext of giving him chocolates. Police said the convict later strangled the child to death. During interrogation, Fiza confessed that he ran a chit fund business and had developed a grudge against Wasim over disputes related to chit funds. Seeking revenge against the family, he allegedly lured Abdul to his house around 5 pm on April 20, 2023.
Police said the convict made the child sit beside him on a sofa before allegedly covering his mouth and nose. When the boy tried to resist and raise an alarm, Fiza used a cloth piece to strangle him. After the murder, he allegedly tied the boy’s hands, legs and neck using thread and kept the body inside a plastic drum. Fiza later wrapped the drum in a large plastic cover and tied it. Police said he then contacted an auto driver, Mohd Rafiq, who helped transport and dump the drum in a nala at Deendayalnagar after covering it with old clothes.
Public Prosecutor GV Ramakrishna Rao told TNIE that the case was based entirely on circumstantial evidence as there were no eyewitnesses.