10-year-old boy murdered by neighbour, body dumped in ghat area

Police said that the boy was a student of an English Medium School. His father works in a private company in Ramtekdi area. His mother is a teacher in an English medium school. He also has an elder sister who is in Class IX.

Police said that it was routine for the boy to go to his school in the morning and come back home around 2 pm in the afternoon. At this time, his parents are at their respective work place and sister in school. After coming home, he used to call his father over phone.

Accordingly, on Wednesday, August 27, he returned home from school at around 2.30 pm and spoke to his father over phone. He then had his lunch and was watching television. But when his mother came home around 5 pm, she found the door of their house was opened, the television was on, but the boy was missing.

She searched for him, but was unable to trace her. She then called his father. As the couple failed to locate Om, they approached the police and filed a missing report. Police said that they also sought help from a private detective for searching the boy.

Meanwhile, the Hadapsar police got information about a boy being dumped in a gunny bag in the Bopdev ghat. A team of Hadapsar police station led by inspector Rajendra Mohite then rushed to the spot. Police recovered the dead body and sent it to the Sassoon hospital for postmortem. Meanwhile, police also confirmed that it was the missing boy’s body.

The cops then launched a probe to find out his killer. Police came to know there was some quarrel between suspects Kalane and Bankar a few days back following a dispute over parking. So the cops questioned the Kalanes over suspicion. Police said that during sustained interrogation, Vrushal’s mother admitted that her son killed the boy.

Investigation revealed that when the boy was alone at his residence, Vrushal called him out. Police said he allegedly tried unnatural sex with the boy. Later Vrushal allegedly strangulated the boy to death. Police said that to confirm whether he was dead, Vrushal allegedly put boy’s head in a tub filled with water. After confirming his death, Vrushal kept his dead body under the bed in his house. At this time Vrushal’s parents were out for some work.

He told his parents about the boy’s death after they came home in the evening. Vrushal’s father is an autorickshaw driver. Vrushal and his parents kept the boy’s dead body at their home for the entire night. Police said that in the early hours of Thursday, they put his body in a gunny bag, took it to Bopdev Ghat in the autorickshaw and then dumped it at an isolated spot.

Tensions prevailed in Phursungi area today after the boy’s body was found. The boy’s family even refused to accept his body. But after intervention of senior police officers, they did accept the body and conducted his last rites in the crematorium in Phursungi around 6 pm. Police force was deployed at the spot during the last rites to prevent any untoward incident.

Meanwhile, police suspect that urge for unnatural sex was reason behind the boy’s murder, but investigation is being done to confirm the exact reason behind the heinous crime. Police have slapped charges under Protection of Children From Sexual Offences Act against the suspect.