In Palghar region of Maharashtra, a teenager is accused of killing an eight-year-old neighbor because he was upset with her for making fun of him, according to authorities.
The girl’s body was found three days after the incident, which happened on December 1 in a chawl in Pelhar village, leading to the discovery of the murder. According to an official, the police detained the Jalna district teenager on Wednesday for the murder and took his father into custody for allegedly attempting to dispose of the victim’s body.
According to a police station official in Vasai taluka, the accused boy is sixteen years old.
“The girl went missing last Friday after she stepped out of home to buy ice-cream. Her family members later filed a missing person’s report and the police launched a search operation, but in vain. On December 4, her highly-decomposed body was found stuffed in a plastic bag in an unoccupied room in the same chawl,” the official said.
After that, he added, the police filed a report against the unidentified individuals in accordance with sections 363 (kidnapping), 302 (murder), and 201 (causing the disappearance of evidence of offence). They also sent the body to a government hospital for a post-mortem.
According to the police officer, during the investigation, they discovered that a 16-year-old teenager from the same chawl had vanished ever since the body was discovered.
“During the investigation, the police found that the teenage boy was involved in the crime and a deeper probe confirmed that he himself had killed the girl,” he said.
“During his interrogation, he told the police that he was annoyed with the victim as she used to tease him and he wanted to teach her a lesson. On December 1, he sensed an opportunity to do so when she stepped out of the house alone at night. He dragged her into his house and strangulated her to death,” the police official added.
However, he kept the victim’s body hidden in their home for two days before telling his father about it since he was unsure of what to do with it. Later, he claimed, the pair moved the body to an empty room in their chawl.
Suspicion regarding the accused persons’ involvement was aroused when the inquiry revealed that the girl’s slippers had been discovered at the door of their room. After the body was discovered, the accused’s father sent him to Jalna district, where he was later arrested by a police team and taken to Pelhar.
He noted that more investigation into the case is under progress.
