Man held in Mumbai for killing Surat-based aunt's toddler son and dumping body in train toilet

Surat: Police have arrested a man from Mumbai for allegedly killing his Surat-based maternal aunt's three-year-old son, whose body was found dumped in the toilet of an express train in the Maharashtra capital three days ago, officials said on Tuesday.

The body of the toddler was found in a garbage bin kept inside the toilet of Kushinagar Express (22537) train that runs daily between Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh and the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) in Mumbai in the early hours of August 23.

The body was found by the cleaning staff after the train arrived at the LTT, the Mumbai police earlier said. The accused, Vikaskumar Shah (30), admitted that he abducted and killed his maternal aunt's son out of grudge because she used to constantly nag him about finding some work as he was jobless, a release issued by the Surat police said.

On August 21, the woman living in Ganeshpura area of Surat city approached Amroli police station with a complaint that her elder sister's son Vikas Shah had abducted her three-year-old-son.

During the investigation, the police found CCTV footage wherein Shah, a native of Bihar, was spotted boarding a Mumbai-bound train with the boy, a release by the Surat police said. On August 23, the minor's body was found in the toilet of a train at the LTT while Shah was still missing.

Based on technical surveillance of his mobile phone, he was found present in Bandra, Kurla and Dadar areas in Mumbai. Police formed various teams and started searching for the accused after taking mopeds on rent, it said.

On Monday evening, he was finally nabbed from a place in Mumbai's Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) and was here on Tuesday, the release said.

According to the police, Shah is a native of Siwan district of Bihar and worked as labourer in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait before returning to his native place in April 2025. Since he was jobless, he came to Surat along with his mother nearly 15 days ago in search of work and started living at his aunt's place in Amroli. But since he was not doing any work, his aunt started nagging him to find some job and asked him to shift elsewhere.

Fed up with this constant taunting, Shah abducted her son and killed her using a sharp weapon before dumping his body on board the express train, the Surat police said.