For the parents of Mohammed Nawaz, Saturday, April 16 was a normal day as their son had gone to the Moghalpura ground in Hyderabad to play volleyball. However, things took a turn when Nawaz did not come that evening. At around 10 pm on Saturday, the 14-year-old had suddenly collapsed while playing, and though he was rushed to the Osmania General Hospital in the city, he was pronounced dead by doctors.
According to the police, preliminary reports show that Nawaz died due to dehydration. As per reports, when Nawaz collapsed, he also began to get seizures and was foaming at the mouth. The Times of India reported that Nawaz was also fasting for Ramzan and that he had not eaten well for a few days before his death.
While police suspected dehydration and fatigue to be the cause of Nawaz’s death, his father Riaz Ahmed told Siasat.com that he saw injury marks on his son’s face. According to the report, Riaz suspected foul play in the case, as Nawaz could have been beaten up by some unknown persons at the volleyball field. In light of this, the father lodged a complaint with the police, and a case of suspicious death under Section 174 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
Speaking to reporters, Nawaz’s uncle Abdul Mannan said that some local youths saw Nawaz get beaten up on the day of his death. “We want authorities to ensure justice for my nephew. We need to know in 2-3 days whether he was killed or collapsed on his own and died,” he said.
“We believe he was murdered and it wasn’t a natural death. What some of the local children told us is that a few boys got into a small fight at the mosque. While returning home around 10 pm to 10.15 pm, I was informed that they took my nephew to the ground on the way and beat him up. He died on the spot, he was declared dead on arrival at the hospital,” Abdul Mannan said. He added that the police have registered a First Information Report (FIR), and that once the postmortem is conducted, they will decide on adding Section 302 of the IPC (Punishment for offence of murder).
However, police have ruled out any foul play in the case, and maintain that Nawaz died due to dehydration. “It is false that the victim died due to a fistfight with his friend. He was indeed returning from Taraweeh prayers around 10.30 p.m. But he died due to dehydration. He had not eaten well for the past few days. He then went to a small playground near his house in Alijah Kotla to play volleyball with his friends where he died of dehydration,” Moghalpura inspector A Ravi Kumar told The Hindu.