Hyderabad Police Solve 10-Year-Old's Murder

Hyderabad :If the horrifying murder of a 10-year-old girl in Kukatpally five days ago was all about the obsession of a 14-year-old neighbour for an inexpensive Rs 500 cricket bat, the behaviour of the alleged accused was nothing but stunning.

"For four days the boy acted normally, offered alibis, and swore innocence to his mother,” Avinash Mohanty, Cyberabad commissioner of police, said at a news conference on Saturday, where the police revealed the details of the killing of the girl on August 18.

“A slip during questioning and faint forensic traces exposed him."

Finding the clinching evidence, and zeroing on the accused was a result of painstaking old school detective work, Mohanty added.

Among the investigators was Kukatpally inspector K.V. Subba Rao, who will be heading home after five days of non-stop pursuit of the case. Subba Rao said the boy, who made his way back to his home returning the same way he went to the girl's house, picked up a clean shirt and held it against his front to hide blood stains.

His father and sister were at home and the suspect went straight to the bathroom where he washed himself, put the blood-stained clothes in their washing machine for cleaning, and washed the knife to remove traces of blood.

Police officials said that during the investigation, they found that the juvenile's mother had asked him if he was involved in any way in the incident, and the boy had denied any role. "When his mother asked him again on the second day, he accused her of trying to turn him in and even swore that he didn't do it. His mother also said two months before, her son received a cell phone, but that he would only say he bought it and wouldn't tell us where the money for the phone came from, which raised doubts in her mind about her son," the DCP said.

Detailing how the police solved the case, Mohanty said, "going back to the clues one at a time helped us discover him as the suspect. Our teams were initially misled by the boy, who claimed he heard the girl screaming for help around 10.15 am, when the incident occurred." He said the also boy cooked up a story about him going to a hospital around 11.30 am as his rabbit had fallen sick.

The breakthrough came when the officials, questioning another minor from the neighbourhood, who informed them that they saw the juvenile accused loitering on the terrace wall for about 15 minutes, from 8.30 am. "This strengthened our suspicion, and we began watching the suspect closely," DCP K. Suresh said.

"He wrote a slip in which he wrote how he would pour petrol, fire the lock to melt it in order to break into the house. The bat was kept in the kitchen of the house. He thought cutting off the gas pipe would lead to a fire, resulting in no trace of the theft being left behind," the DCP said.

He added that once the clothes the boy wore on the day of the incident were recovered, forensic tests revealed traces of human blood. "I have seen those stains myself," he said, adding further forensic analysis is being carried out to properly establish these aspects.

"It is hard to figure out what went on in the boy's mind, but it is apparent that he may have felt that his parents cannot buy him one, and he wanted the one the girl's six-year-old brother had," Mohanty said.

The death of the girl came to light on August 18 after her father, Krishna, returned home after dropping his six-year-old son at school, as the school informed him that his son did not have his lunchbox with him.

An FIR has been registered against a 14-year-old boy who has since been sent to the juvenile home. He will be charged under Sections 331(5) (house-trespass or house-beaking) and 305 (theft committed in a protected premises such as a house) of the BNS which were added to the FIR after it was initially registered under Section 103(1) (murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

Kukatpally Victim's Father Demands 'Blood for Blood'

Hyderabad:"Blood for blood. That boy should not exist anymore. He is not a boy, but a monster who planned everything out."

On Saturday, the 10-year-old victim’s father, taking to media persons outside the Kukatpally police station, poured his grief out urging the police, the government, and the people "not to see the 14-year-old boy who killed his daughter as a wayward juvenile but a person with clear criminal intent."

Even as his wife and relatives sat on a dharna near the police station demanding justice putting the police in a hard spot in ensuring they did not block the traffic on the busy road, the father said: "My son played cricket with him almost every day. After the murder, he behaved as is nothing changed and everything was normal.

“How could we suspect a child? But he is not a child. Until the police found out, we never imagined he could do it. A minor cannot plan a murder like this. He should not be treated as one. A minor cannot plan like a criminal," the victim’s father said.

He also said around `85,000 had gone missing from his home. "I don't know since when he (the accused minor) has been stealing from my house," he said, and added that the boy could have not have indulged in the actions he did without his parents being aware of his behaviour.

"All I want is justice for my daughter and he should be hanged. I appeal to the police and the government to do justice for my dead daughter," Krishna said.