New Delhi: In an act of revenge, an 8-year-old boy mercilessly murdered a one-and-a-half year toddler in Delhi’s Fatehpuri Beri in the early hours of Sunday.
According to the sources, the 8-year-old punished the toddler by drowning him in a small water tank near their house.
The boy resented the toddler’s elder sister after his brother had fallen and injured himself because of her, HT reports.
It was shocking for the toddler’s mother who is a contractual wage earner from UP to wake up to an empty bed with her child nowhere to be found.
“We received a call at the Fatehpur Beri police station that a one-and-a-half-year-old child had gone missing while his mother and 10-year-old sister were asleep on the roof of their house. A police team reached the spot and launched an intensive search for the boy. After about an hour, the toddler was found in a drain nearby,” the police officer said.
The toddler was bleeding from his right ear and was pronounced dead on arrival when the search team rushed him to a nearby hospital.
The victim’s body has been sent for a post-mortem examination at AIIMS.
According to Deputy commissioner of police (south) Vijay Kumar, the investigation revealed another boy aged eight was also missing since morning and that is how he became a suspect.
“A search for the boy was launched and after about two hours, locals and police teams managed to locate him about a kilometre away from his house. When he was questioned about the toddler, he said he had drowned the child into a water tank near their house,” the DCP said.
The police added the eight-year-old’s younger brother had fallen while playing with a few children in the neighbourhood a few days ago.
“This had caused a minor swelling on his brother’s head. He said he held the toddler’s elder sister responsible for pushing his brother and therefore, wanted to teach her a lesson. In that rage, he said he took the boy and drowned him. Later, he threw him into the drain,” the officer said.
A murder case has been registered under IPC Section 302 against the 8-year-old accused. He shall be soon produced before the juvenile justice board.