Sunny lived in Khoda

GHAZIABAD: Three minor boys were booked for murder on Sunday after they allegedly thrashed to death a Class VI student following a quarrel over a plastic wrist watch. The victim, identified as 12-year-old Sunny, studied in a private school in Khoda.

The boy lived with his parents and two siblings in a single-room first-floor rented accommodation in Azad Vihar in Khoda. According to police, Sunny was found unconscious by his younger brother, Sagar, around noon near the entrance of the room that the family had rented. The boy’s father, Raju, a mason, was not at home and his mother and sister, who work in Noida, had also left home early in the morning .

Neighbours told police that Sunny was found in a seated position at the room’s entrance with a stole tied tightly around his neck. “The other end of the stole was tied and suspended from the handle of the room’s door. Sagar was playing downstairs with his friends and had rushed to the room for a glass of water around noon when he found the body. He thought Sunny was unconscious and informed a neighbour who in turn called up Raju,” said senior sub-inspector Gaje Singh.

Raju, who rushed to his house, used a pair of scissors to cut the stole from around Sunny’s neck. He was rushed to Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial Hospital in Delhi where he was declared dead on arrival.

“When we reached the spot, Raju was holding the boy in his lap. We helped him to take the boy to the hospital, but he was declared dead,” said Vikas, a neighbour.

Police registered a case of murder against three minors of Azad Vihar locality on the basis of Raju’s complaint. The police questioned Sagar and neighbours. But no one had seen anyone accompanying Sunny to the room upstairs.

Police said Sunny had reportedly been gifted a plastic digital wrist watch, which would cost nearly Rs 100 in the market, by Avisek, a friend, a few days ago. Later, Sunny had given the watch to another boy who had in turn given it away to a third boy. The quarrel started on Sunday when Sunny apparently demanded the watch back but was flatly refused.

The two boys who were in possession of the watch after it changed hands from Sunny had been named as accused in the FIR along with another boy. They were booked under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC.

The body of Sunny was awaiting a post-mortem at the Delhi hospital on Sunday evening. “ The wrist watch was not very costly. The boy who was wearing the watch reportedly fled when Sunny demanded it from him which led to a quarrel. One of the accused boys was physically stronger than Sunny and probably it was he who overpowered him. All three accused are minors and are roughly of the same age as the victim. They also live in the neighbourhood,” additional SP Ravi Kumar told TOI.

