8-yr-old boy murdered by transgender, family suspects human sacrifice

HYDERABAD: In what is suspected to be a case of human sacrifice, eight-year-old Abdul Wahed Khan, who left his house to offer Sehri namaz on Thursday, was brutally murdered, allegedly by his 35-year-old neighbour, Imran Ali Khan also known as Fiza Jahaan, a transgender.

The victim, a Class III student from Sanathnagar's Allauddin Koti neighbourhood, had returned home after taking his last exam earlier on Thursday and informed his grandmother that he would go to a mosque to pray for good grades and his mother's health, as she had fallen ill two days back.

His body, wrapped in a sack and packed in a plastic container, was found in a drain in Moosapet early Friday.

Farzana Begum, Abdul's grandmother, recalled that Imran, who was like a family member at their home, had given some money to Abdul and asked him to fetch an ORS drink for him. Family members initially thought Abdul was attending 'iftar' at a local mosque, but when he did not come home by 8 pm on Thursday, they became anxious and scoured the area. They later reported the incident to the police, who rushed to the scene.

The police inspected CCTVs in the vicinity and found Abdul entering Imran's home but not him leaving. Further investigations indicated that an autorickshaw was waiting at the entrance to the alley leading to the residence of the boy and the accused and that Imran was carrying something and loading it into the autorickshaw.

With this clue, the police questioned Imran, who confessed to killing Abdul. Imran said he dumped the body in a nala with the help of an autodriver from Borabanda named Mohd. Rafeeq, who was a frequent visitor to the accused's home, DCP Balanagar Zone T. Srinivasa Rao told Deccan Chronicle. Imran and Rafeeq were arrested, and a case was filed against them under Sections 302 and 201 of the IPC.

The victim's family claimed that Imran had strangled Abdul when he took the ORS packet to him. The boy's family claimed that he was the victim of a human sacrifice, but the police stated that the boy was killed because of a financial dispute between Imran and Abdul’s father, Waseem Khan, who runs a business of ready-made clothes.

"At this point, we believe that the murder was motivated by financial issues. There is no evidence of a human sacrifice as claimed. However, we are looking into all possibilities," Srinivasa Rao said.

When the boy's relatives and locals found out about the murder, they vandalised Imran's house, damaging furniture and household belongings, leading to a tense situation in the densely populated Allauddin Koti.

Additional forces, including Quick Response Teams, were rushed to the scene to bring the situation under control. Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav met Abdul's family and assured all kinds of support from the government, including financial assistance to the family.