The parents of Shubham Shirke, who was abducted and murdered here allegedly by three of his friends for ransom, have demanded justice for their son and stringent punishment for the killers.
“My son was innocent and friendly with everybody. The suspects tortured him before strangulating him to death for no reason. We want justice,” said Sunita Shirke, the mother of the 15-year-old, who was killed by his classmate and two other boys at Dighi on Saturday.
Sunita and Mahadev Shirke said, “This was a cold blooded murder of a minor by minors. If the law is against stringent punishment to minors, there is an urgent need to lower the age limit for juvenile crimes.”
The Shirkes also want that there should not be any political interference in the investigation.
“We want special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam to conduct the trial of our son’s case,” Ms. Sunita told reporters on Monday at her residence in Dighi.
Shubham was kidnapped on Saturday from Dighi area and was taken to a nearby hill where he was strangled to death. The accused then made a call to his father Mahadev Shirke demanding Rs 50,000 which was later brought down to Rs 15,000, police had said.
However, Shubham was not released even after his father Mahadev paid the money to the abductors that night following the ransom call. Thereafter, the parents approached Vishrantwadi police and three arrests were made in the case.
The teenager was a student of Priyadarshini English Medium School in Bhosari area and had appeared for his Class X exam this year. Out of the arrested accused, two are minors and one has given 12th standard examination this year.
One out of the three friends is a classmate of the deceased.
According to police, the three accused would keenly follow television serial ‘CID’ based on real crime incidents.
