'Forced to hide injury marks’: 4-year-old smothered, beaten to death in Lucknow; father, stepmother held

LUCKNOW: A day after a murder case was registered in connection with the death of a four-year-old boy in Chowk, police on Saturday arrested the child's father and stepmother after the post-mortem revealed brutal assault.According to the autopsy report, 18 serious injuries, including fractures, were found on the boy's body, indicating prolonged and severe physical abuse.Investigators suspect the child was beaten and smothered to death.The FIR was lodged on the complaint of the child's maternal grandmother, who accused the boy's father, and his second wife, of murdering the child. The first wife of the accused (the victim's mother) had died of illness in 2022.

Police said both the accused were arrested on Saturday shortly after the report confirmed the injuries.The boy's maternal grandmother alleged that the child was regularly beaten for the past six months after his father obtained his custody through a court order in Aug 2025.She claimed that the couple forced the child to wear full-sleeve shirts and cap even during summer to conceal injury marks.After his mother's death, the boy lived with his maternal relatives in Unnao.

The father later remarried and eventually secured custody of the child through court proceedings.After bringing the boy to Lucknow, his father restricted his contact with his maternal family and allowed only brief phone calls.When relatives reached the house after being informed about the boy's death on Thursday, they claimed they saw multiple bruises and burn-like marks on the child's body, including on the back and legs.Tension also erupted outside the post-mortem house on Friday when the two families clashed and exchanged heated arguments.Following the autopsy, the body was handed over to the child's maternal family who performed the last rites, said Chowk police station in-charge Nagesh Upadhyay.