The accused in the brutal murder of a one-and-a-half-year-old child in Firozabad was presented before the court on Sunday and ordered to be sent to judicial custody. However, due to injuries sustained in a police encounter, the accused will remain hospitalised under police vigil until he recovers.For representation onlyAmrish Kumar, the deputy superintendent of police (DSP) for Shikohabad circle in Firozabad, confirmed that the accused was presented before a remand magistrate on Sunday and ordered to judicial custody. DSP Kumar added that the individual’s injuries to both legs, sustained during the police encounter on Saturday evening, necessitated his continued treatment at the hospital, Trauma Center in Firozabad, under police guard.A case, Crime case no. 401 of 2026, has already been registered under section 103(1) (murder) of BNS at Shikohabad police station.The accused, identified as Viraj alias Jitendra, allegedly brutally killed the child, Aarav, by repeatedly smashing him on the ground after the child’s mother, Rati Devi, denied his marriage proposal. The accused considered the child an obstacle to his plans. A video of the gruesome incident, which occurred in a lane in Yadav colony, Shikohabad, went viral, showing a man repeatedly smashing the child to the ground. The incident was captured on CCTV.Additional superintendent of police (ASP) City Ravi Shankar Prasad explained that the accused, Jitendra Pathak aka Viraj, had been pressuring Rati Devi to marry him. “When the mother refused the proposal on the grounds of having a child, the accused began viewing the child as a “hurdle” and planned to “get rid of the child and killed him,” stated the ASP City Firozabad.Rati Devi, who married Sumit Kumar, a resident of Badaun, in 2024 and had a son Aarav in 2025, had been residing with her mother in Shikohabad for the last five months due to matrimonial issues. The accused, Viraj, was a cousin of Sumit Kumar and had initially approached Rati’s family offering help with the matrimonial dispute. During this time, he offered to marry Rati after she divorced Sumit Kumar, but she refused.The accused absconded after the killing on Saturday. Police subsequently arrested the accused after an encounter on Saturday evening.