He had used a pizza cutter and a pair of scissors to murder the victims (Representative Image) | Photo Credit: Getty Images

Key Highlights The murders took place on the night of December 4, 2018 UP police had arrested the boy from Mughalsarai after a week-long hunt His father refused to testify against the boy, the only living member of his family still alive

Noida: Almost two years have passed since he was first apprehended by police and booked for the gruesome murders of his mother and sister. The then 16-year-old-boy whose merciless attempt to kill two of his own family members had gone viral on social media platforms, has been acquitted and released from police custody. He was lodged at an observation home in Phase II from where he was released on May 20.

A senior official of the Noida police who investigated the killings said that the boy was let off by the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) after the only witness in the case, his father, turned hostile. The father was in Gujarat for a business trip at the time of the incident but remained to be the only witness of the crime. He produced medical records of his son's mental health as evidence that the boy should not be tried as an adult.

The infamous murders took place in Greater Noida's Gaur City on December 4 of last year. The boy, aged 16, had used a bat to bludgeon and a pizza cutter to cut open his mother and sister after they chided him over a minor issue. After he committed the heinous crime, the boy had fled home with a backpack. A statewide search operation led to his arrest from Mughalsarai in Uttar Pradesh after he made a call to his father and begged for help in overcoming what he had done.

Officials familiar with the investigation had told media outlets at the time that the boy had used a bat to bludgeon his 42-year-old mother and sister. He then used a pair of scissors and a pizza cutter to slash open their bodies before leaving home with a bag full of cash and some clothes. He travelled to Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Shimla and Chandigarh again before he was finally arrested. He forgot the bag of cash in one of the trains and was desperate for money when he called his father and tipped off the police about his location.

In the days following his arrest, police had retrieved the bat, pizza cutter, scissors and blood-soaked clothes pertaining to the crime. They had also come across CCTV footage from the housing society which shows him leaving with a backpack minutes after committing the heinous crime. The case had sparked a debate about the urgent need to look after the mental health of young adults in India.