Ghaziabad (UP): Police found the body of a boy, wearing a school uniform, stuffed in a bag on the bank of the Ganga canal here, officials said on Tuesday.

The police said that prima facie it appears that the child, aged around five, was killed somewhere else and the accused wanted to throw the body into the canal but it got stuck in the bushes.

On December 17, some passers-by saw the body on the bank of the Ganga canal and informed the Niwari Police Station. The police rushed to the spot and took it into custody.

“The deceased boy was wearing a red sweater and black pants, perhaps these were of the school uniform. His left hand was plastered,” ACP Modinagar Gyan Prakash said. The body was sent for post-mortem.

While probing the case, the police checked their records and found that the boy’s face was similar to another 8-year-old boy who had gone missing from Meerut in July 2022. Following this, they reached out to the Meerut police who contacted the family with the deceased’s photograph.

However, the family did not recognise the boy.

Senior Superintendent of Police, Meerut, Vipin Tada told PTI, “We are also working on this case and will assist the Niwari police.” Meanwhile, DCP (rural) of Ghaziabad NK Tiwari said that they will carry out a DNA test of the deceased boy with 8-year-old’s mother to establish his identity.