A 16-year-old boy desiring to be feared by those around him planned a series of murders after a ‘godman’ apparently appeared in his dreams and motivated him to kill at least 10 persons if he wanted fame and wealth.
The boy was apprehended from West Delhi on Sunday, but not before he had already killed two persons in a period of just three days before that. Along with the juvenile, his 26-year-old associate too was nabbed. Police said that the associate, a driver by profession, was present during the first murder. The first of the two ‘blind’ murders reported from Nihal Vihar took place during the wee hours of Thursday. Kanhaiya, an alcoholic, was found with stab wounds in an empty plot of land. On Saturday, police were informed about another alcoholic found dead with his throat slit in another plot of land in the same area. A team led by Sharad Chander, SHO Nihal Vihar, took it upon themselves to track the accused in the two murder cases. Based on local intelligence, they soon apprehended the juvenile. “The juvenile would use a button-activated knife to kill his victims. He involved his friend Pradeep in his plan as they went about looking for victims,” said Pushpendra Kumar, DCP (West).
The juvenile told the police he was looking to execute a dozen persons over the coming days as he believed that it would bring him fame and wealth. A dream of a ‘godman’ motivated him, he claimed.
He decided to target alcoholics of the area as it was easy to lure them to an isolated spot on the pretext of providing them more liquor. “He needed Pardeep’s assistance as the boy himself was not well-built and feared that he could be overpowered by his victims,” said a police officer.
A native of Bharatpur in Rajasthan, the juvenile had moved into Delhi around two years ago. “Though of thin built, he had turned into a bully in his area. People avoided him, but he still wanted to be of a more dominant nature and saw himself as a gangster,” said the officer. During his first murder, the juvenile had walked away after stabbing the victim repeatedly in his back. But unsure that the victim had died, he returned half-an-hour later to the spot to ensure he had died. “During the next murder, he had learnt the art as he directly slit the victim’s throat,” said the officer, adding that the rate at which he was finding victims, it would not have taken him much time to kill a dozen persons if he had gone untraced.
