Father, stepmom accuse boy of stealing Rs 500, beat him to death in Ghaziabad

GHAZIABAD: A 10-year-old boy was allegedly beaten to death by his father and stepmother in Ghaziabad's Tyori Biswa village on Saturday morning.The couple suspected the boy, Ahad, of stealing Rs 500 from home and thrashed him severely with a blowpipe before landing a fatal blow on his head.Shahjahan, the child's grandmother, who alerted the cops, said the boy collapsed on the spot. She alleged the couple, Naushad and Razia, would often physically assault the child over minor complaints.ACP Modinagar Gyan Prakash Rai told TOI that a team from Bhojpur police station, which reached the village around 9 am after Shahjahan's alerted them, took the boy to a nearby hospital but he had already succumbed to the wounds by then and was declared brought dead by doctors.Cops found Razia crouching near the body and arrested her from the spot. Naushad, who had fled before the cops arrived, was caught about an hour later within the village precincts. They were charged under BNS Section 103(1) (murder). The blowpipe - a commonly used tube-like tool in rural areas to stoke fire in stoves - used in the crime was seized. Police said Naushad runs a tea stall in the village and Razia is his second wife. Naushad's first wife, Ahad's biological mother, had left him nine years ago. The couple also has a daughter.