Surat: The three-year-old boy, whose body was found inside a washroom of an AC compartment of the Kushinagar Express at the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) in Mumbai a few days ago was killed by his cousin, the police claimed.
Vikash Shah (26) committed the murder after the child’s mother asked him to leave their house and search for a job. He was arrested from the Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai on Tuesday and handed over to the Amroli police in Surat. He was produced before a court in Surat on Wednesday and remanded to police custody till August 30.
It has come to light that Shah visited Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait for jobs in the last five years and returned to India in April 2025 after allegedly quarrelling with his colleagues, the police said.
“The accused had confessed that he lost his temper after his aunt (the child’s mother), Durgavati Shah, gave an ultimatum to him and his mother, Rabdi Kumari Shah, to vacate her house by August 22 and asked him to look for work. He kidnapped his aunt’s youngest son, Aarav (3), on August 21 and later killed him by slitting his throat and disposed of the body in the dustbin of the B2 coach of the Kushinagar Express train lavatory at Lok Manya Tilak Terminus, Kurla, Mumbai, on Saturday,” a police official said.
“In the last five years, Shah had made frequent trips to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, but he stayed only for about 9-10 months at each place and returned to India, after quarreling with colleagues. We are trying to find whether any criminal complaint has been registered against him in those countries,” he said.
Police said that Shah, along with his sister Reena and mother Rabdi Kumari Shah came to Surat from Bihar around a week ago to stay with his mother’s sister, Durgavati Shah, who was living with her two sons and a daughter in the Amroli area of the city. Durgavati’s husband works in Dubai.
After a few days, Durgavati realised that her elder sister had no plan to return to her native place in Bihar’s Siwan district and told her to vacate the house and find another rented place. Police said that Shah felt humiliated when his aunt told him to find a job. On August 21, he left the house with Durgavati’s youngest son Aarav, and reached Mumbai by train.
He purchased a razor in Mumbai and slit Aarav’s throat before disposing of the body in the B2 coach of the Kushinagar Express. After committing the murder, Shah stayed on the pavements and roamed around the Bandra Kurla Complex from where he was arrested,” the official added.
