The body of the five-year-old grandson of a woman, whose body was found at Nonadanga in Anandapur on Wednesday, was found in a canal in Bantala, on the eastern fringes of the city, on Thursday.

A taxi driver was arrested on Wednesday for the alleged murder of the woman. A 17-year-old boy, who was allegedly accompanying the driver, has been detained.

A post-mortem revealed that the child, who was missing, died from asphyxia because of smothering.

“His death was due to the effects of smothering,” said a police officer.

The child had left his Narkeldanga home with his grandmother, Rehana Parveen, in a taxi on Tuesday afternoon.

They went to another apartment that Rehana owned in Tiljala to collect rent.

However, when she failed to return home by 8.30pm on Tuesday, her family raised the alarm and called the police.

During the investigation, the taxi Rehana had hired was traced to the driver’s home in the Taltala area on Tuesday night.

The driver was detained based on suspicion on Tuesday night and arrested the next morning when he is said to have confessed to his crime and led the cops to the woman’s body.

However, the child was nowhere to be found.

Pursuing leads from the statement of the driver that the child had been thrown in a water body, the police had launched a search operation in the adjoining water bodies from Wednesday night.

The body was spotted floating in a canal at Bantala, around 13km from where the woman’s body was found, on Thursday.

The police said they had detained the 17-year-old minor who was allegedly accompanying the driver during the alleged crime.

The motive of the murders is hazy, police officers said.