The Delhi Police have recovered the body of a 10-year-old boy from a mosque in northeast Delhi’s Khajuri Khas area. Police said that they have apprehended two juveniles — 17-year-old and 12-year-old — for killing the victim.
Police said that the duo juveniles wanted to extort money from the deceased’s father by kidnapping him.
According to Ved Prakash Surya, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Northeast district, one Shamim, a resident of Shri Ram Colony, lodged a missing report of his 10-year-old son at Khajuri Khas police station on Friday.
“The minor boy was missing since the intervening night of Thursday and Friday. Shamim said that on Thursday around 6:50 pm, his son went to Madina Masjid of Shri Ram Colony, but did not return. During investigation, joint search was conducted by police and the parents of child in the nearby areas of their house,” said the DCP.
“Police found the body of a boy buried under the debris in a corner on the second floor of the Madina Masjid. Shamim identified him as his son Farhan. Police analysed the CCTV footages of the area. All the persons present in the Madina Masjid at the time of ‘Isha namaj’ around 7.15 pm were examined and it was found that the victim was last seen with his two minor friends,” said the DCP.
“Both the juveniles were examined separately and contradictions were found in their versions. Later, they confessed of killing Farhan. On their confession, both the juveniles were apprehended,” he said.
“The juvenile told police that they wanted to extort money from deceased’s father by kidnapping him. They planned it some days ago that they will kidnap the child and will demand ransom from his father for his safe release, the DCP said.
“To execute their plan, they gave the victim water laced with sleeping pills around 10 days ago, but nothing happened to Farhan and their plan got failed. On Friday, the 17-year-old boy gave money to another accused and asked him to bring momos from a nearby vendor at about 7 pm. On the pretext of eating momos, they took Farhan to the first floor of the Madina Masjid where they enjoyed the snack and thereafter, took the deceased to the roof of the mosque,” said the DCP.
“On reaching the roof, the 17-year-old juvenile pulled down Farhan and strangled him while the other accused held his legs. When Farhan died, they hide his body in the debris at the corner of the second floor of the mosque and put a plastic bag containing sand over it,” said the DCP.