A five-year-old boy, who was missing for the past 10 days, was killed by a teenager and the former’s body was dumped near the Nehru Outer Ring Road, Shamirpet police said on Monday.
The 17-year-old migrant labourer from Odisha confessed to smothering young Adiyan to death after he accidentally fell on the ground and suffered head injury while shooting a video for ShareChat, social media platform. The teenager, who works at a dhaba, is a neighbour for the boy’s family at Shamirpet. “The teenager wanted to shoot a video of Adiyan kick jumping and post it on ShareChat. During the act, the boy, fell down and received an injury on his head. Fearing that Adiyan’s parents would rough him up, the juvenile killed him,” Balanagar DCP P.V. Padmaja told The Hindu .
She said that further he tied the boy’s hands and legs with an adhesive tape and stuffed the body in a luggage bag. “He walked till Shamirpet junction, from where he took a share autorickshaw till ORR and dumped the body in the bushes,” the officer said. Later, he met his friend, took ₹ 200 from him and went to Gajwel in search of work. However, he returned to Shamirpet as he could not find a job there.
Ms. Padmaja said that on the evening of October 15, Adiyan left home informing his mother that he was going out to play. When he did not return home, the boy’s parents searched for him in the locality and later lodged a missing complaint at Shamirpet police station.
Initially, as there were no clues of kidnapping or murder, the investigators assumed the boy might have been swept away in the floods and launched a manhunt in the nearby nalas and lake. However, on October 23, the owner of the building where the boy’s parents reside, received a call from an unknown number, demanding that ₹ 15 lakh ransom be paid to set Adiyan free.
“With the help of call details, we traced the teenager, who confessed to killing the boy as he fell off while shooting a video,” the DCP said. As he could not find a job and wanted to go back to Odisha, he demanded ransom, police said. “He thought of running away with the money and booked a train ticket for his return journey,” Ms. Padmaja said. Based on the juvenile’s confession, the police recovered Adiyan’s decomposed body and sent it to Osmania General Hospital morgue for autopsy.
A was registered against the teenager, who was later sent to juvenile home for custody.
