A 36-year-old e-rickshaw driver, Wazid Khan, was arrested in northeast Delhi's Shastri Park on Saturday for allegedly beating his 12-year-old stepson to death with sticks and stones following a dispute with his wife. According to police, the accused picked up both stepsons from school and took the younger one to a nearby forest area to carry out the attack. The boy's mother learned of the murder through a video confession sent to her.
Police stated that Wazid Khan (36), a resident of Shastri Park, picked up his 15-year-old and 12-year-old stepsons from school in his e-rickshaw on Thursday. He asked the elder boy to wait in the vehicle and took the younger one to a nearby forest area, where he assaulted him with sticks, stones, and possibly a sharp-edged weapon, leading to the child's death. The boy's disfigured body was discovered in bushes near Shastri Park Chowk early Friday morning.
During interrogation, the accused confessed that frequent arguments with his wife escalated after her children from her first marriage returned home from a hostel. Five days prior, following a major fight, the wife had left for her sister's house. A police officer said, “The accused killed the boy to teach his wife a lesson, including issues over denial of sexual favors.”
The mother recounted, “In the video, he said: ‘Jaa apne bacche ko le ja (Go and fetch your son).’ I saw my son lying in a pool of blood.” Doctors confirmed severe injuries, including head wounds, one eye gouged out, cuts on the face and ear, and a slit throat.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northeast) Ashish Mishra stated that the suspect was arrested from Ghaziabad on Saturday morning, and his e-rickshaw was seized. The child's biological father died in 2019, and the mother remarried the accused in 2020. The family had filed a prior complaint but later withdrew it. A case under Section 103(1) (murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita was registered at Shastri Park police station. The body was sent for post-mortem at Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital.
