Delhi police have registered a murder case on the mother's complaint
A 13-year-old boy was arrested for allegedly killing an infant by drowning him in a water tank in east Delhi's Dallupura area, police said on Thursday.
The accused had a grudge against the mother of the eight-month-old baby, they said.
He drowned the baby on Tuesday in a rooftop water tank of his house, they said.
Pintu Kumar, the father of the baby, had taken him to Lal Bahadur Shastri hospital - which informed the police -- after he was found in the water tank of his house. The child was declared brought dead by the hospital.
The incident happened when Poonam, the mother of the child, had gone to some place outside her house leaving her three kids - the other two aged 4.5 and 2.5 years -- in a room latching it from outside.
When she returned, she found the youngest was not one in the room. She along with others began a search, and found the child drowned in the water tank at the roof of the building.
A case was registered under sections of 302 (murder), and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) of the Indian Penal Code on the mother's complaint and an investigation was taken up, a senior police officer said.
The house of the victim's family is located in a building which accommodates several other families, mostly from labour class, who live on rent.
"When we started the investigation, we found that the mother of the child had gone to see a flat in nearby area and had later returned. There was around 10 minutes of gap in which the incident happened," said the police officer.
"We initially thought that the accused did not come from outside. We checked and found that all the occupants living in the building were present there and no one was found missing," she said.
Police started questioning the occupants in the building. During investigation, their suspicion fell on a 13-year-old boy and they examined him.
During questioning, he revealed that out of a grudge he had against Poonam, he drowned her youngest son in the water tank placed at the rooftop when no older member was present in the house, Deputy Commissioner of Police (east) Priyanka Kashyap said.
The juvenile had an impression that Poonam complained about him to his mother, because of which she beat him. He told police that one day he tore the notebook of Poonam's daughter and Poonam complained about it to his mother.
The families of the victim and accused live on second floor of the building.
On the day of the incident, the accused picked the child when there was no one in the house except other kids. He drowned the child and came back to his second floor house, police said.
When Poonam was looking her child, the accused misled her saying that he saw him going upstairs. He also tried to mislead police telling them the same thing, police said.
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