‘Tall man befriended 6-yr-old, took him away from the park’

According to area residents from where Mehram was allegedly kidnapped, the children playing with Mehram said that he was not taken away forcibly, but walked away with the man as if he knew him. The children told the victim’s family that a tall man, wearing a yellow shirt and blue jeans, who appeared to be in his twenties, was spotted several times in the park. They also said that he had talked to Mehram once before on the pretext of showing him his mobile phone.

When Mehram was taken away, it was around 6pm but dark due to bad weather and a power cut, no resident actually witnessed the abduction.

“We generally never let Mehram out of our sight but that day, his grandfather, who kept watch over him, was out for duty. His mother saw him playing in the park, and 10 minutes later, when I went to bring him inside, he was missing,” said his grandmother Jaswinder Kaur.
Some items and clothes found from the scene of the crime were collected by the police and are being examined, although the presence of a dumping site nearby suggests the items were simply garbage material.

Meanwhile, police also rounded up some in-laws of the victim’s mother in connection with the crime. Mehram’s mother had alleged that she was threatened by them. However, police have not found any evidence against them so far.

Police sources also said that they are searching for a taxi driver believed to have been involved in the crime. Piece of cloth found from body

Doctors conducting the post-mortem of the deceased found a knotted piece of cloth while inspecting his bones which had fallen off. Police said that the post-mortem hinted at strangulation. Also, an X-Ray examination of the body suggested that there was no injury prior to the death of the boy.

For further chemical and pathological examination, police have sent the victim’s clavicle (collar bone), molar tooth, material from leg and skull, tissues from leg, and some other body parts to a forensic lab. To rule out sexual abuse, the police have sent a swab from anal and peri-anal area to test for presence of spermatozoa.

Police also said that according to the post-mortem, the victim is believed to have been killed within a day or two of the abduction.
Area residents questioned

Residents of Kumbra village and Sector 69 were questioned for potential leads and several teams were formed for this purpose. Some people living in the huts nearby told the police that the forest area where Mehram was found was sometimes visited by drug addicts.