The police on Sunday said two teenage boys have been arrested for allegedly stabbing to death an 18-year-old, slitting his throat and burning his face with a chemical to hide his identity in south Delhi’s Bhatti Mines.
An officer said the incident took place on Saturday when the victim Harsh Kumar, a Class XII student, was playing cards with 4-5 boys in a forest near the spot of the crime and the two accused tried to snatch his phone.
“One of the apprehended CCLs (child in conflict with law) snatched the phone and when the victim tried to stop him, the two accused slit his throat and stabbed him several times in front of the other boys to show off their dominance in the area,” a senior police officer said.
The officer added that after the other boys at the spot fled when the accused juveniles threatened to kill them as well, the two burnt the victim’s face with a chemical to disfigure him and make it difficult to identify him.
The accused as well as the deceased are residents Bhatti Mines’ Sanjay Colony.
The incident came to light when a PCR call was received at Maidan Garhi police station on Saturday at 2.23 p.m. about the dead body of a boy found near Radha Krishna Mandir, Telephone Mohalla in Bhatti Mines. A police team reached the spot and after the body was identified by the victim’s grandmother, it was sent to AIIMS where the post-mortem was conducted. The report is awaited.
The police registered a case under IPC Section 302 and, with the help of CCTV footage from the area along with interrogation of people in the area, apprehended the accused.
The evidence seized from the boys included the knife used for the murder, their blood-stained cloths and the victim’s mobile phone and SIM card.
The victim’s family said that there were multiple stab wounds on Harsh’s body, while the police said that the actual number of those wounds will be revealed in the post-mortem report.
According to Rajat, the victim’s cousin, Harsh had left from home around 11 a.m. on Saturday after receiving a phone call. “Those boys had only called him as they had planned to kill Harsh. They are all drug addicts,” he claimed, adding that although their family knew the accused, there was no animosity between them.
Rajat also said that Harsh’s parents had passed away in a fire accident in their house when he was only a few months old. “He lived with our grandparents and I also stay there most of the time.”
“He wasn’t very much into studies and had asked the family to get him a motorcycle so that he could start a job after school hours. He was a fun-loving person and loved mobile gaming,” Rajat said about his cousin.
