Amroha man wanted to sell infant son to buy Rs 3 lakh tempo, ‘smothered him’ when he failed

Naushad Ahmed, 33, was arrested Wednesday evening for allegedly killing year-old son he wanted to sell for Rs 3 lakh. He has been booked for murder.

Nazrana shows the only photo she has of her infant son Rehan, who was allegedly killed by her husband earlier this week. Her daughter Rehnuma is seen in the background | Suraj Singh Bisht | ThePrint

Amroha: Nazrana Ahmed sits on the verandah of her house at the Kanchan Bazaar area in Amroha, holding the clothes of her year-old son Rehan. As she hugs the clothes, one thought runs over and over in her mind.

What if she hadn’t left home Tuesday afternoon? Sure, she was barely gone for minutes, and it was only in the pursuit of a safer childhood for her children, but… what if?

Nearby, Rehnuma, Nazrana’s two-year-old daughter, is folding her brother’s clothes on a cot – the same cot where, days ago, Rehan was strangled to death.

The alleged killer wasn’t a stranger or a family enemy. It was the children’s father, Naushad Ahmed.

Described by neighbours and family members as an ill-tempered man prone to violent bursts of anger, Ahmed allegedly killed Rehan – smothered him – after a failed bid to sell him. According to Nazrana, Ahmed wanted to buy a tempo from the money earned off the sale.

Ahmed, 33, was arrested by police Wednesday evening. Based on a complaint filed by Nazrana and his father Shamsad, he has been booked for murder. He is currently in judicial custody.

According to local police, Rehan’s autopsy has confirmed the cause of death as ‘asphyxia due to smothering’. A senior police officer told ThePrint that Naushad had confessed to his crime.

“They are extremely poor, Naushad has said that his relations with his wife were strained and he was frustrated. He wanted to sell the kid,” Jaiveer Singh, the station house officer at Mandi Dhanaura, said.

“During investigation, we have found out that he would also hit his wife, and had earlier also broken his father’s arm,” Singh added.

Back at home, Nazrana shows ThePrint the only photo she has of Rehan – a photo clicked after his death on a neighbour’s phone. The photo shows Rehan in a blue vest, his eyes closed and face turned to the side. Those who don’t know the reality would probably think the child was asleep.

Clutching his clothes, she said, “Rehan’s clothes are the only memory left with me now. We could never afford a mobile phone (to click photos).”

Weeping, she added, “I had been gone only five minutes…”

As the family grieves, Kanchan Bazaar finds itself living in the shadow of fear in the wake of the killing.

“We can’t believe he did that to his own son,” said a neighbour. “Our kids are scared to play outside now, they think — ‘agar Naushad wapas aa jayega toh humein maar dega (if Naushad comes back, he will kill us),” said a neighbour.

‘Wanted to sell son to buy tempo’

Nazrana and Naushad got married three years ago. While Nazrana hails from Nepal, Naushad’s family has been living in the locality for the past 2 decades.

Nazrana and Naushad met through the family of her elder sister Rizwana’s husband, who is also based in Amroha.
“A relative of my husband knew Naushad, so we fixed his and Nazrana’s marriage,” said Rizwana.

Both Naushad and Nazrana are uneducated.

At Kanchan Bazaar, the family of Nazrana and Naushad Ahmed lives in a tiny house, in a situation of constant financial straits. The one-room house doesn’t have lighting, only a bulb that flickers unless someone holds the wire.

Nazrana Ahmed at the family’s home in Kanchan Bazaar | Suraj Singh Bisht | ThePrint

According to Nazrana, Ahmed, who worked odd jobs as a labourer – if rarely – squandered his income on drinking and gambling.

Nazrana said he had also borrowed money from some people. Ahmed, she added, would stay away from home for days on end, and only return when he needed to scour the house for goods he could sell. The family got by on the little money Shamsad earned as a labourer.

Tired of living like this, Nazrana said she began looking for a job, willing to move as far as Kashmir or even Goa to get away. It was to make a call in this regard that she went to a neighbour’s house around 2 pm Tuesday.

Recalling the day of the killing, Nazrana said she never usually left the children alone with Ahmed as he would often hit them. Even on Tuesday, she was only out for five minutes, she added.

However, when she returned home, she allegedly found Rehan lying on the verandah cot, with Ahmed trying to suffocate him.

“I saw him cupping Rehan’s nose and mouth, and his face swelling. When I tried to snatch my child, Naushad pushed me. By the time I managed to free Rehan from his grasp, it was too late. He killed my son,” she said.

Nazrana alleged that Ahmed wanted to sell the boy for Rs 3 lakh and buy a tempo. He killed him when he failed to find a buyer, she said.

Two days before the murder, Nazrana said, Naushad had hit Rehan with a pair of scissors. Last month, she added, she had caught him trying to water-board the child in a bucket. She pointed to marks on her daughter’s face and said — “this is how he would abuse them”.

‘A violent man’

Ahmed’s alleged violence, however, wasn’t directed at his children alone. Nazrana, Rizwana, and other residents of Kanchan Bazaar said Ahmed was the “demon” of the house who would regularly beat up his wife and father too.

“Everyone has marital problems, but his behaviour was too violent. They don’t have a phone, whenever she would get space, Nazrana would call and cry but there was little we could do, she had 2 young children,” said Rizwana.

On Monday night, he had allegedly hit Nazrana — “he sat on my chest, there is hardly a part of my body that he hasn’t abused”.

Said Kurshida, a neighbour: “We would hear screams. Nazrana would often come to us crying. He would beat her up black and blue.”

It is to escape his brutality that Ahmed’s brother Arif allegedly left home a couple of months ago.

“He had broken his father’s arm some months ago. Arif ran away because Naushad would often hit him,” said Asma, another neighbour.

Neighbours say Naushad would hardly be at home. Nazrana added: “He would come home only when he ran out of money. Then he would sell whatever was left. He has sold the cylinder, bulbs, pressure cooker.”

Another neighbour, named Shamshad, said “Naushad would often steal phones and money from our homes”. “But we live together, so we often let it go. Recently, he stole someone’s phone in Amroha. Those people beat him up and we went to rescue him.”

Nazrana’s mother Nazmunia is currently on her way to Uttar Pradesh from Nepal. Nazrana told ThePrint that she intends to return to Nepal for a couple of months, and will only return when she secures a source of income.

(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)