16-year-old stabbed to death by friend whose ex started dating the teen

16-year-old boy stabbed 11 times by friend over jealousy of ex-girlfriend. Accused arrested in Mumbai after victim found in pool of blood.

MUMBAI: A 16-year-old boy was killed in Ghatkopar after being stabbed nearly 11 times by a 19-year-old friend when he saw a picture of his ex-girlfriend with the teen on social media. The accused, identified as Rushikesh Gurav, a resident of Diva in Thane was arrested on Monday.

Rajesh Deo, DCP (Southeast) said, “The scene of crime was inspected by the forensic team and evidence was lifted. There were no eyewitnesses.” (Representational image)

The victim, Shravan Ganesh Salave, a student of class 9, was found in a pool of blood at Golibar Road with severe injuries to his eyes, chest, right shoulder, neck, wrist and arms.

The police officials said Rushikesh started getting jealous when he suspected that his ex-girlfriend, a minor, was dating Shravan. The insecurity reached its crescendo when Rushikesh recently moved to Diva from Ghatkopar. “Change of location may have caused a rift between Rushikesh and his girlfriend who stopped seeing each other frequently and the girl’s growing affection towards his friend Shravan made him furious,” said an official.

Things took an ugly turn when Rushikesh saw a picture of Shravan and his ex on social media. “On Sunday evening, Rushikesh called Shravan to Ghatkopar for a smoke. After smoking together, he stabbed him several times with an iron rod that he was carrying and fled from the spot,” said an officer.

The Ghatkopar police have registered a case under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code after they found the body of Shravan, a resident of Sanjay Gandhi Nagar, Vikhroli, Parksite with several stab wounds.

“After residents found Shravan in injured condition, they called us and we rushed him to Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar where he was declared dead upon arrival. The boy was later identified, and we found that his father works as a manager in a gas agency and his mother is a homemaker. He has an elder brother, a 20-year-old, and a 23-year-old-sister who is married,” said an officer.

The police immediately sprung into action and scanned CCTVs of the area. “The victim was studying in class 9 in a civic school in the Parkside area. We started finding out who he met on Sunday and learnt that he was with Rushikesh,” said senior police inspector Mahesh Tawde of Unit 7 of the Mumbai crime branch, whose team detected the case.

The Ghatkopar police and the Mumbai crime branch teams also reached the house of Gurav in Diva. He was, however, not at home.

“We learnt that he was hiding at one of his friend’s houses, and picked him up from there,” said Tawde whose team headed by sub-inspector Swapnil Kedar, Mahesh Shekar and constables Vikas Honmane and Namdeo Parbalkar picked up the accused.