Two more persons arrested in Aligarh infant’s murder

Wife and younger brother of main accused were complicit in brutal crime

Lucknow University students participate in candle-march against killing of a girl in Aligarh in Lucknow on June 7, 2019.

The Uttar Pradesh police on Saturday arrested two more persons in connection with the brutal murder of an infant in the Aligarh district. A total of four persons have been arrested so far.

The police nabbed Mehdi Hasan and Shaista, the younger brother and wife of Zahid, the main accused, for their alleged complicity in disposing the body after the murder. Zahid and Aslam are alleged to be the main accused who planned and executed the murder, police said.

New evidence

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Aligarh Akash Kulhary said investigators have recovered a “new piece of evidence” in the form of the dupatta that belonged to Shaista. According to the police, the same cloth was used to wrap the child’s body when it was discovered near a dumping zone in the Tappal area. The police have also recovered a curtain from the accused persons’ house.

The recovered items have been sent for forensic probe along with the tissues, viscera sample and slides from the body, said Mr. Kulhary.

While the post mortem report ruled out rape, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted to probe the case will also include a forensic investigation to ascertain the true nature of the crime that has caused wide outrage.

Meanwhile, the Aligarh Bar Association has boycotted the accused and barred its lawyers from appearing for them.

‘No lawyer’

“No advocate will stand with those miscreants and nobody will fight their case. If anybody comes from outside, we won’t allow even them to argue the case,” said Anup Kaushik, Aligarh Bar Association general secretary. “Aligarh’s lawyer community is with the child's family in the fight for justice. We won’t let anybody fight for injustice,” he said.

The infant’s family lodged a complaint on May 31 at the Tappal Police Station that their infant daughter had gone missing.

Even as the family desperately tried to search for the child, her body was recovered from near a waste dump in a mutilated state on June 2.

According to the preliminary findings, the accused Zahid and the victim’s father shared personal animosity and Zahid had threatened the father two days before his daughter went missing. The victim's father owed some money to Zahid, police said.