17-year-old killed in Anand Parbat over refusal to give Rs10 for a cigarette, 4 arrested

The accused were identified as Praveen alias Ravi, 20, a factory worker, Ajay aka Bachkanda, 23, a commercial vehicle driver, Sonu Kumar, 20, a tailor, and Jatin alias Dhancha, 24, a salesman in a footwear shop.

New Delhi: A day after a 17-year-old boy was assaulted and stabbed to death in central Delhi’s Anand Parbat, police on Tuesday said they arrested four men who allegedly killed him for refusing to give them ₹10 to buy a cigarette.

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According to police, one of the arrested men was the victim’s neighbour.

On Monday around 7am, the police control room was informed about an unidentified body in a lane close to the Anand Parbat police station. A police team reached the spot and found that the body had been stabbed in the upper abdomen. Police said that no eyewitnesses were found at the crime scene and the identity of the dead person could not be immediately ascertained through local enquiry. A case of murder was registered and a team was formed to crack the case.

“Through local intelligence, the deceased was identified as a 17-year-old resident of Baljeet Nagar in Anand Parbat. The body was handed over to his family members after the autopsy at a government hospital’s mortuary,” said deputy commissioner of police (DCP, central) Shweta Chauhan.

The DCP said the investigating team questioned locals and scanned footage from CCTV cameras installed around the spot where the teenager’s body was found. They found video footage of the scuffle and the subsequent murder. The four suspects--identified as Praveen alias Ravi, 20, a factory worker, Ajay aka Bachkanda, 23, a commercial vehicle driver, Sonu Kumar, 20, a tailor, and Jatin alias Dhancha, 24, a salesman in a footwear shop-- were arrested between Monday and Tuesday.

During the interrogation, DCP Chauhan said, the arrested men disclosed that late Sunday (June 5) night, they spotted Vijay sitting on a staircase. Sonu Kumar knew Vijay as they lived in the same neighbourhood. He asked Vijay to give him ₹10 to buy a cigarette.

“Vijay refused after which a scuffle broke out between them. Sonu and his accomplices assaulted Vijay and stabbed him. Thereafter, they took out his wallet containing ₹150 and fled, leaving him to die,” said an investigator.