The suitcase in which six-year-old Sheikh Akram’s body was found. Picture by Amit Datta

Mohammad Shahnawaz was arrested on Friday for allegedly murdering his six-year-old neighbour Sheikh Akram after sodomising him.

The 19-year-old had stuffed the child’s body in a suitcase and dumped it in a pond by the EM Bypass, said police. The body was found on Thursday.

According to preliminary investigation, Shahnawaz, a school drop-out who sold bags, sodomised Akram on Monday — the day the boy went missing — and killed him immediately afterwards.

“The child could not bear the torture and had lost consciousness. Shahnawaz murdered him because he did not want people to find out what he had done,” said an officer of Tiljala police station.

“The inquest report mentioned that there were strangulation marks on the boy’s throat. We will know what exactly caused Akram’s death after getting the post-mortem report,” said Praveen Kumar, the superintendent of South 24-Parganas police.

The child was last seen playing with his friends around 10am on Monday on the ground floor of the Topsia Road building where he lived in a rented flat with his parents and sister. His mother Sehnaz Begum started looking for him around half an hour later. Akram’s father Sheikh Janu, a carpenter, later combed the area for his son.

An investigator said: “Shahnawaz saw the boy playing with his friends. He told us that he showed the child a comic book and promised a chocolate to lure him to his flat, which is two buildings away.”

Shahnawaz had also confessed to torturing the child sexually, the officer added. “The teenager thought that if he allowed the boy to go home, everyone would find out about his act. So, he strangled Akram while he was unconscious.”

Another officer said it was a cold-blooded murder. “After Shahnawaz was certain that the child was dead, he took out a suitcase and emptied it. He stuffed Akram’s body in it. He also put in a piece of paper with the child’s address.”

Shahnawaz threw the suitcase into the pond, near Parama Island Investigation Centre, that night, added police.

Local residents spotted the suitcase at the edge of the waterbody on Thursday morning and alerted the police.