Kanpur boy's murder: Main suspect arrested after encounter
A heartbreaking case unfolded in Kanpur when five-year-old Ayush Sonkar was allegedly kidnapped and murdered on October 24, 2025.
The main suspect, Shivam Saxena, who lived in the same building as Ayush's family, was arrested after a police encounter on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday.
Saxena allegedly saw Ayush's mother as an obstacle
Police say Saxena lured Ayush away with the promise of a remote-controlled toy car, then took him to the Pandu River by auto-rickshaw and strangled him.
CCTV footage helped identify Saxena after Ayush's family reported him missing.
Investigators found that Saxena had ongoing conflicts with the family and allegedly confessed he saw Ayush as an obstacle to being with the boy's mother.
When officers tried to arrest him, he tried to escape and fired at them before being caught and hospitalized for a leg injury.