4 held for killing boy, burying body in Delhi's Central Ridge

The four men were arrested on July 3, two days after a kidnapping case was registered at the Patel Nagar police station on a complaint given by the boy’s father on July 1.

Four men were arrested on charges of kidnapping a 17-year-old boy from Baljeet Nagar in central Delhi, stabbing him to death and burying his body in the Ridge area near Inderpuri, besides burning his and their own clothes to avoid identification and arrest, police said on Tuesday.

The four arrested men with the police on Tuesday.

Stating that the motive for the crime was revenge, police said the teenager and his friends had allegedly assaulted one of the four men on June 29, just two days prior to his kidnap and murder. The arrested men were identified by their first names, Arif, 19, Sohel, 23, Shivam, 22, and Saurav, 22 — all residents of Baljeet Nagar.

The teenager’s body was exhumed from the Ridge area on Monday night after the arrested men revealed the spot to the police during interrogation. The charred remains of the boy’s clothes, as well as that of his alleged killers, were recovered from near the burial spot, police said, adding that the knife used to kill the teenager and two scooters used in the crime were also recovered from the arrested persons.

The four men were arrested on July 3, two days after a kidnapping case was registered at the Patel Nagar police station on a complaint given by the boy’s father on July 1.

Deputy commissioner of police (central) Shweta Chauhan said the teenager’s father said four persons on two scooters had kidnapped his son in front of him at knifepoint from near Sabzi Mandi in Baljeet Nagar. Acting on the complaint, police began investigations and scanning footage from CCTV cameras installed on the routes that the four had taken before and after the kidnapping.

One of the cameras captured the kidnapping and it showed that the suspects had gone towards Dhaula Kuan after taking the boy. The team checked the footage from over 200 cameras in a 12km radius from Patel Nagar to Dhaula Kuan. It led the police to ascertain that the suspects had taken the boy to the Ridge area in Inderpuri, said the DCP.

“After two days of hard work, we identified and nabbed the four suspects. They initially misled us by claiming that they had dropped the teenager at L-block of Baljeet Nagar. But the boy could not be found. The suspects were again interrogated at length, and they confessed to killing the boy,” said DCP Chauhan.

The four men said after kidnapping the teenager, they took him to the Ridge and stabbed him to death. Thereafter, they removed his clothes and buried his body in the forest. They burnt his clothes as well as their own in a bid to destroy evidence and avoid arrest.

Speaking on the motive, DCP Chauhan said, the arrested men revealed that on June 29, the teenager and his friends assaulted and attacked Arif. A case in this regard was registered on the complaint of Arif.

“Arif and his friends planned to avenge the assault. And for that they kidnapped and murdered the teenager,” the DCP said.