A 17-year-old boy has been detained in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut for allegedly hammering his close friend to death. The teen has confessed and told police that his friend, Abhinav, had stolen some pictures and videos of his girlfriend from his phone and was blackmailing her.
Abhinav and the accused were students of Class 11 and 12, respectively, and were neighbours. They were preparing for engineering entrance exams and would go together to a coaching centre about 15 km from their homes. Abhinav would ride his scooter and the accused would sit pillion.
The two left for the coaching class on Saturday, but Abhinav did not return till late evening. When his parents asked the accused, he said he did not know where Abhinav was. Abhinav's father Sunil Kumar registered a missing person complaint that night and said he suspected the accused.
Police picked up the accused and scanned CCTV footage that showed the two teenagers were together. During questioning, the accused confessed to murdering Abhinav.
The accused told the cops that he had some videos of his girlfriend on his phone. He said Abhinav had seen those videos and transferred them to his phone. Abhinav then started blackmailing his girlfriend and asked her to hang out with him, the accused has said. When his girlfriend told him about this, he plotted Abhinav's murder.
On Saturday, the accused told Abhinav he wanted to sell his phone. The two went to a shop and sold the phone for Rs 8,000. They then ate at a restaurant. On their way back, they stopped near a tubewell. Suddenly, the accused took a hammer out of his bag and hit Abhinav on the head. The accused has told police that he kept hitting Abhinav even after he fell to the ground.
Police handed over Abhinav's body to his family Sunday. His relatives, however, refused to cremate him till they got justice. They have said the accused could not have killed Abhinav on his own and demanded that police arrest the other accused.
"Police should not mislead us. They should tell us the truth, about who all were involved. We should know what happened to our boy," said Abhinav's relative Kuldeep.
"The accused has said there were some videos of him and his girlfriend on his phone and Abhinav had stolen them. He was upset and he planned this. We have recovered the body and the hammer. We have taken the accused into custody. He is a minor and he will be produced in court. We will scan the CCTV footage to see if anyone else is involved in the crime and take action. The family is demanding action against everyone involved and we will do it," Meerut City SP Ayush Vikram Singh said.
Inputs by Shyam Parmar
