Missing 3-year-old found dead

MUMBAI: A three-year-old boy, who had gone missing from his home at Goregaon (W) on Sunday, was found dead near a nullah on Monday. According to autopsy reports, the child, Prince Patel, had drowned. Residents, however, said there seems more to the case than what meets the eye as Prince was found dead nearly half-a-kilometre away from his house.
Prince's father, Shyamlal, is a garage mechanic and his mother, Surekha, a housewife.The family stays at a slum colony in Bhagat Singh Nagar-I. Prince was playing on his own
outside his house on Sunday, around 3 pm. When he did not return home, his parents started looking for him. Around 8 pm, they approached the Bangur Nagar police station and lodged a missing complaint.
Around 7.30 am on Monday, residents found a child lying along the edge of a nullah running behind the slum. There were no injuries on the body. Cops were summoned and the child was rushed to Bhagwati Hospital where he was declared dead. The child was later identified as Prince.
"The autopsy report says the boy died of drowning, but it's not possible that he walked up to the nullah on his own. We are exploring all possibilities and are making enquiries with neighbours. The family did not receive any ransom calls," a police official said, adding that they were probing if Prince's parents had a dispute with anyone. As of now, a case of accidental death has been registered.
In August, a teenager had kidnapped and later killed an eight-year-old boy from Bhagat Singh Nagar to extract Rs 2 lakh from his parents for a bigger house. The accused, Azam Khan (19), had roped in his friend, Shahid Shaikh alias Laddan (21), to execute his heinous plan. Azam was known to the victim's parents and even shared meals with them at times.