Police arrest aunt for kidnapping, strangling two-year-old nephew

Mumbai: The police have arrested Indu Gupta (30), for strangling her nephew, Vivaan Kandu (2), whose dead body was found in a large plastic bag at Kachpada in Malad west on Tuesday morning. The police had put Vivaan’s relatives under the scanner since his body was found.

Mumbai police spokesperson deputy commissioner of police, Rashmi Karandikar confirmed the incident and said, “We have arrested the accused woman, who is the victim’s aunt and booked her under section 363 and 302 of the Indian Penal Code that pertains to kidnapping and murder respectively.”

Officials of Malad police station said that the relatives of the deceased boy were detained on Tuesday itself and were interrogating them along with a few neighbours and shopkeepers who had seen Vivaan last on Monday afternoon. The police had sent Vivaan’s body for postmortem and were awaiting the results, while the interrogation process was in full swing. During the interrogation, Gupta gave in the confession and blurted out the facts of the day of the incident.

The police official added, Indu Gupta and her husband were having a property dispute with the victim, Vivaan’s father Sandeep Kandu and had a personal grudge over the Kandu family. When the result of the dispute was going in Kandu’s favour, Gupta lost her cool and decided to end matters her way. Indu then kidnapped Vivaan from the building where Kandus were residing and took her to their Kachpada residence, and killed him by strangulating the victim. Vivaan then died due to asphyxiation. After killing the toddler, Indu packed him in a plastic bag and dumped him near the corner of their colony in Malad west, where his body was found early on Tuesday. The aunt has been booked under sections of the Indian Penal Code relevant to kidnapping and murder.