(Representative image)

RAIPUR: A group of boys brutally stabbed a five-year-old child in both eyes and his head with a screwdriver and threw him into a pond to drown after a petty dispute over mangoes in Chhattisgarh's Janjgir-Champa district on Sunday evening.

Since all the accused are below seven years of age, they will not be prosecuted. The boys even cooked up a story of abduction to hide their crime. The victim's body was found on Monday morning. An autopsy revealed he had drowned, indicating that he may have survived had the kids sought help.

Janjgir-Champa SP Parul Mathur said five kids had gone to pluck mangoes on Sunday. One of the boys (who later turned out to be the main accused) climbed a tree, plucked mangoes and threw them down for the others to collect.

The victim, Sahil, picked up a particularly juicy mango and ate it instead of adding it to the pile, said Mathur. This infuriated the boy on the tree, who clambered down and started quarreling with Sahil.

Suddenly, he took out a screwdriver from his pocket and stabbed Sahil repeatedly in the eyes and head, said the SP. Howling in pain, Sahil collapsed and lost consciousness. The kids panicked on seeing the blood. Afraid of being scolded by their parents, the kids dragged the unconscious Sahil a few metres towards a pond and dumped him in the water. When Sahil didn't return home till late in the evening, his parents enquired with the friends, who claimed that he was abducted by 'bacha chor.' They even narrated a story of how he was "stuffed in a gunnysack" and taken away.

Horrified, the parents rushed to police and reported a kidnapping. Police immediately set out in search of the boy. It was only on Monday that Sahil's body was found.

Seeing the stab wounds, police started questioning the boys. Eventually, they cracked and told how he was stabbed and then thrown in the pond.

