Abu Dhabi: An 11-year old boy, whose body was found on the rooftop of his residential building on Wednesday, had been raped and murdered, Abu Dhabi Police confirmed on Monday.
Major General Maktoum Al Sharifi, Director-General of Abu Dhabi Police, said the police have arrested a Pakistani man who confessed that he raped the victim and strangled him to death.
Al Sharifi, in a statement, praised the efficient efforts of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which led to the immediate arrest of the suspect.
The police did not reveal any further details about the suspect.
A family friend of the boy told Gulf News on Monday that the family has been waiting for the completion of formalities to receive the boy’s body. “The family has not decided about the burial… whether to do it in Abu Dhabi or Pakistan or Russia,” said the friend who did not want to be named.
Gulf News exclusively reported on Friday that the boy’s father is a Pakistani and mother a Russian. The mother, who used to visit her son in Abu Dhabi, was in the city when the tragedy occurred.
The boy, Azan Majid Janjua, went missing on Tuesday and his body was found the next morning. His father, Dr Majid Janjua, had told Gulf News that Azan was fasting and had gone to the mosque for afternoon prayers and Quran recitation and he then went missing. Some neighbours saw the boy returning from the mosque but he never reached home. An extensive search by the family for the boy proved futile.
AC technicians, who went to the building’s rooftop to check a malfunctioning chiller, found his body there on Wednesday morning.
“His body was half-naked and the Quran was beside him,” the father said.
Azan was Dr Janjua’s first son born to his first wife whom he met while studying medicine in Russia. As they did not live together for a while, Azan, who was also a Russian national, lived with his mother in Russia.
As part of a mutual agreement between parents, Azan started living with his father around two-and-a-half years ago.
Dr Janjua has been living in the same building for the past six years with his father, his second wife and two young children. “We had a nice time since Azan joined us. He liked his younger siblings,” he said.
Azan, said the father, did not have the habit of roaming around and was a disciplined boy. “He never went outside without our permission,” he said.
For Dr Janjua, the UAE has been like home as he came here as a small child. “My grandfather and father were living here. Soon after my birth in Pakistan, I was brought to the UAE,” said Dr Janjua who works with a medical insurance company in Abu Dhabi.
The happy moments spent with his son on that fateful day are still vivid in the father’s mind. “He woke up early and had suhour with us. We went for Fajr prayers at the masjid [mosque] and he was [in a] happy [frame of mind],” Dr Janjua had said.
