10-yr-old shot dead playing cops & robbers

A 10-year-old boy was shot dead in a game of cops and robbers at the home of his 12-year-old friend, also a neighbour, in Raghubir Nagar area of west Delhi. No child's play

A 10-year-old boy was shot dead in a game of cops and robbers at the home of his 12-year-old friend, also a neighbour, in Raghubir Nagar area of west Delhi.

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The two were playing on the ground-floor house of the friend, who stumbled upon a country-made pistol kept in a bag in a room. Playfully, he put it to the head of the boy, a Class 6 student, and pressed the trigger.

"Both the families live on rent and the landlord, who resides on the first floor, saw the boy lying on the ground," V Renganathan, additional commissioner of police (west) said.

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He informed the parents and the boy was rushed to Deen Dayal Upadhyaya hospital.

Two bullet marks were found on the wall after the Saturday night incident.

"Doctors, too, first took it to be a regular head injury but later noticed entry and exit wounds in the boy's head," Renganathan said.

It was after the boy died that the police were called in and investigation launched.

Immediately after he shot the boy, the friend informed his father, who dumped the gun and destroyed evidence, the police said.

"When the boy's family was in hospital, the friend's father and a friend of his washed the blood stains and threw away the pistol," a senior police officer said on condition of anonymity.

The two have been arrested. The weapon, said the police, belonged to the friend, who was visiting the family.

The two have criminal record and were caught under the arms act earlier, the victim's family alleged.