A 28-year-old private bank manager allegedly lured a six-year-old boy from outside his Meerut home and killed him by slitting his throat — all because he wanted to marry the child’s mother, police said.

The accused, Arpit Parashar, a resident of Muzaffarnagar, was arrested on Wednesday. Police said they recovered the boy’s body from a field located about 10 km from his house.

Abhijeet Kumar, Additional Superintendent of Police, Meerut, said when questioned, Parashar tried to mislead police by claiming that he had disposed of the body in a canal. The accused eventually admitted that he had allegedly killed the child by slitting his throat with a sharp-edged weapon.

Police are also questioning the boy’s mother, Gurpreet Kaur, who has so far denied any knowledge of the alleged crime, said Additional SP Kumar.

The victim, Angadveer, lived with his family in Meerut. His father, Gursevak, works as a truck driver in Dubai.

A senior police officer said the accused told them that he had known Gurpreet for around three years after meeting her in connection with some work and had hoped to marry her. During questioning, he allegedly claimed that he viewed the young boy as an obstacle to those plans, leading him to plot the child’s abduction.

According to police, Angadveer was playing outside his home in Ramraj village on Tuesday morning when he suddenly disappeared. As the hours passed and the six-year-old failed to return, panic spread through the family.

His grandmother, Balvinder Kaur, later filed a kidnapping complaint at the Hasuma police station, naming Parashar as a suspect.

During the probe, police collected footage from CCTV cameras installed in the neighbourhood. The recordings purportedly showed Angadveer walking and playing outside when a person inside a white car appeared to call out to him. The boy was seen approaching the vehicle and getting inside without resistance, suggesting he may have recognised one of its occupants.

Police said the footage quickly became a crucial lead in the investigation, reinforcing suspicions that the child may have willingly approached the vehicle because he recognised someone inside.

Police then shifted the focus of the investigation from kidnapping by unknown persons towards people known to the family.

Acting on leads gathered during the preliminary inquiry, police detained Parashar for questioning. During questioning, he allegedly admitted to the crime and said he took the victim from outside his home before driving away with him and killing him.

SHO Kumar added that police are still questioning the accused to establish the full circumstances of the case. The child’s body has been sent for a post-mortem examination.