Five-year-old's body found

Animals had eaten some parts of it

A body of a five-year-old boy chopped into two parts was found at  Vasant Kunj in south Delhi,  police said on Thursday. Police added that animals had eaten some parts of the body.

The dead has been identified as Mahesh Kumar Mehta, a resident of Shankar Camp. He was missing since January 21. “We had received a call at around 7 pm on January 21 that Mahesh was missing. We found a mutilated body in the jungles of Rangpuri Pahari on Tuesday morning.

 The body was identified by the father of the dead,” a senior police officer said. It was taken to All India Institute of Medical Sciences and was handed over to Mahesh’s family after a post- mortem on Wednesday afternoon.

Mahesh’s father, Bijender Mehta, 40, said the boy was last seen when he went to a shop near their home on January 21.

“Mahesh had taken his mother’s permission to go to a nearby shop at around 3 pm. But he did not return. We searched for him everywhere in our locality for two hours. But efforts bore no results,” Bijender told Deccan Herald.

Bijender later lodged a missing complaint at the Vasant Kunj south police station. “Police informed on Tuesday evening that they had found a body and asked me to identify it. I was just shown the face, as animals had eaten some of the lower part of the body,” Bijender said.

“A case of kidnapping, murder and causing harm to evidence has been registered against unknown persons. The investigation is on. We are trying to find out whether Mahesh’s family had any enmity with anyone. We have also questioned many of their neighbours,” a senior police officer said.

Mahesh lived in Shankar Camp with his father, mother Leela Devi, 35, sisters – Sarita, 13, and Babita, 7 – and brother Vinay, 11.