NEW DELHI: Early on Tuesday, a
16-year-old boy was discovered on a
neighbour’s terrace in
Mukundpur village in northwest Delhi.
Suspecting him of having entered the house to
burgle it, he was caught and
beaten.
The boy was allegedly thrashed for at least three hours by six men before the cops were informed. By the time the unconscious teenager was taken to hospital, he had breathed his last.
Three men were later arrested for culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code. Aslam Khan, DCP (Northwest), said that three others have been identified but are missing.
Abdul Rajik was discovered on the terrace at 3am by Raj Kishore, who told the cops that there were two others who fled noticed. Kishore hauled Rajik into the house and he, his brother Nand Kishore and a friend named Triveni started beating the boy and were joined later by their neighbours, Deshraj, Sant Lal and Sohan Lal.
Police said the group pummelled the boy till 6.30am, when Raj Kishore, who is an auto-rickshaw driver, called the police control room to report an attempted theft in his house.
When the cops arrived, Rajik was lying unconscious outside the house in Gali Number 6. They took him to a hospital, where the doctors declared the teenager brought dead. The body had visible injury marks, with blackened areas on the left thigh. It has been kept in the mortuary for an autopsy.
While Raj Kishore accused the boy and his two unidentified friends of climbing the terrace to enter the house and rob it, Rajik’s cousin and uncles refuted such charges. They said the boy had only come to Delhi two weeks ago. His uncle Asgar said Rajik had come from Bihar to meet his father, who is a daily wager in Noida. The youngster was also surveying madrassas because he wanted to study in Delhi.
Tabarak, the victim’s cousin, said, “When I went to sleep around 11pm on Monday, Abdul told me he would sleep too, but in the morning I was told that someone was beating him up in the next lane. When we went there, we found he was already dead.”
Asgar conjectured that the teenager might have gone out to see the Janmashtami celebrations at midnight. He claimed that Rajik wasn’t acquainted with anyone in the neighbourhood and might have lost his way home. The family also alleged that the neighbours changed the clothes before putting Rajik’s unconscious body in the lane.
The cops are scanning footage from CCTV cameras in the area and a team has been sent in pursuit of the remaining accused.
By the time the unconscious teenager was taken to hospital, he had breathed his last
