Man kills son to frame creditors

His inability to return a loan of Rs1.5 lakh to his friends and his desire to subtly manipulate his own parents into helping him make good the financial loss drove a man to strangulate his four-year-old son in southwest Delhi's Najafgarh a week ago, police said here on Tuesday.

His inability to return a loan of Rs1.5 lakh to his friends and his desire to subtly manipulate his own parents into helping him make good the financial loss drove a man to strangulate his four-year-old son in southwest Delhi's Najafgarh a week ago, police said here on Tuesday.

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"Rakesh Kumar, a small-time businessman, was apprehended from near his house in Najafgarh on February 14. He had suffered losses in his business and had taken loans from various friends. He wanted to implicate his creditors in the murder," said Sharad Aggarwal, deputy commissioner of police (southwest).

Police said on February 9 Kumar approached the police with a complaint that his son Rahul had gone missing from outside their house shortly around 7pm. His parents, said police, believed that Rahul might have been kidnapped by a gang hired by his creditors.

"The child's body was recovered on February 10 from near the Najafgarh drain in Kakraula Village. It was Rakesh's friends who discovered and informed us about the body. The boy's body had no external injury marks and the autopsy revealed that he was strangulated," said a senior police officer.

He wanted to implicate his friends, so that they would no longer be in a position to demand money. "He also admitted that he had hoped to gain his parents' sympathy after the incident,” added DCP Aggarwal.