Lucknow: In a revenge killing, five armed men entered a house in Etah district and shot dead a 7-year-old boy in front of his grandmother. The boy was sleeping with his grandmother in the courtyard. The men woke him up, asked him to stand up and shot him in the chest at point-blank range.
The boy’s family filed a police complaint against five members of their neighbour’s family who are absconding. Locals said the victim’s uncle was allegedly involved in the murder of a relative of the accused men and has been in jail since last year.
The child’s uncle Neeraj Kumar said, “The accused men had been molesting women of our family. They used to flash private parts at the women. Police were called three days ago but they didn’t take any action. The next day, my sister-in-law managed to click a video of the men trying to sexually assault her. We approached the police to file a complaint but the police didn’t register an FIR.”
“Around 2am Thursday, the accused men — Ramvraksh, Bablu, Vimlesh, Vivek and Atar Singh – forcibly entered our house. Using an illegal weapon, they shot dead my 7-year-old nephew and targeted my sister who had recorded the video. They took away her mobile phone,” he said.
Gram Pradhan Sadhu Singh said, “The family members of both accused and victim used to work as scrap dealers in Delhi. Last September, they had a business dispute. Later, a family member of the five accused men was shot dead in Etah. The child’s father Rinku and uncle Sanju had been booked for murder. Rinku managed to prove his presence in Delhi at the time of the incident. Sanju was arrested and sent to jail. The two families had been at loggerheads since then.”
Additional superintendent of police Dhananjay Kushwaha said, “On the basis of a complaint, an FIR was registered against five persons. The child’s body was sent for the post mortem. Efforts are on to arrest the accused. Primary investigation revealed that the child was shot dead for revenge.”
