Mandala: Death of 10-year-old boy remains a mystery

Certain aspects, like Sharma being a hostile witness in a murder case, are being examined by the police to see if his death was, in any way, related to that.

Sharma’s body was recovered by a sweeper on the morning of April 2 at an abandoned tenement, some distance from his residence.

Sharma had gone to participate in a Hanuman Jayanti procession in the area. The CCTV footage shows him being part of the procession. However, when he did not return till late night, his father Ramvilas (62) and mother Bachchidevi (40) started looking for him and approached the Mankhurd police station, where a missing persons case was taken. After looking for the boy, the police eventually found his body the next day.

Mankhurd police senior inspector Sanjay Vernekar said, “We registered a case of murder as during the initial investigation it appeared that the boy may have been killed. We are still investigating the matter and have questioned several people in the case. Since the post mortem report did not appear to be conclusive, we are awaiting the viscera report from the Maharashtra Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL).”

An officer linked to the case said that there were some “nail marks” on his body that led the police to register a case of murder on the basis of the complaint by the boy’s family.

An officer linked to the case said, “We have questioned 20 people who were part of the procession in which Sharma participated. While they remember he accompanied them, no one seems to have any clue when they left the procession. No one said anything untoward happen.”

Police also checked the CCTV camera but the area where his body is found is not covered by the CCTV cameras. Sharma lived in a slum with his parents and his elder sister. His father has three sons and a daughter from his previous marriage and all his children lived separately. “We have also checked if there was any family feud, however, nothing on those lines has come to the fore,” an officer said.

Police then found another lead about Sharma being a witness in a case of sodomy. However, in the court Sharma allegedly turned hostile. Police investigated this angle, however, nothing much came out of this as well. The family told the police that they did not have differences or animosity with anyone in their neighbourhood and could not point to suspects. An officer said that they are also checking if he may have died due to natural causes.

“The family however told us that he did not have any medical problems in the past and was a healthy boy,” said an investigator.

An IPS officer said, “We have solved all murder cases in the eastern region over the past one year. This is the only case that is yet to be solved.”