Delhi horror: 14-year-old boy sexually assaulted, filmed, stabbed 24 times; 9 held

NEW DELHI: Weeks after a 14-year-old boy was murdered and his body discovered in the Munak Canal, the post-mortem report revealed that he had been sexually assaulted. Police had hauled up six people earlier, including two adults, and have now apprehended three more minors from a kanwar camp.According to police, the motive for the murder was the suspicion that the teen was passing on information to two antisocials, one of whom had beaten up the prime accused earlier. The entire incident was recorded on a phone by the accused, who then stabbed the boy 24 times before throwing his body into the canal."We have apprehended three more minors who were found hiding in a kanwar camp in Meerut," a senior police officer said, adding that a team of nine policemen had disguised themselves as kanwariyas to nab the three minors. The phone in which the horrific act was recorded was also recovered from them.Police received a control room alert around 3.10pm on July 1 about a body spotted in Munak Canal in Haiderpur. A team rushed to the spot and found a boy lying naked in the canal with a scarf tied around his neck. There were numerous stab wounds on his body. Tattoo marks and the slender body structure helped police identify the body as that of a 14-year-old boy, a resident of Siraspur.A case was registered. Using local intelligence and technical surveillance, the investigators zeroed in on the suspects — two brothers from the same locality as the victim, who had a long-standing enmity with the boy."The accused, Krishna, 19, and his brother Sumit, 27, allegedly suspected that the minor boy and his friends acted as informers for the Badhawar brothers, who are notorious bootleggers who had thrashed Krishna in public last year," said Hareshwar V Swami, DCP (Outer North). "The Badhawar brothers, Monu and Sonu, are currently in jail under MCOCA in another case at the same police station."The DCP added, "Plotting revenge for months, Krishna, his brother and other friends executed the plan on the intervening night of June 29-30. They abducted the juvenile from near Veer Chowk Bazar, assaulted him and took him on a motorcycle to the Munak Canal."On reaching the canal, the group gagged the boy's mouth with a gamcha, stripped him naked, dumped his clothes into the water and began beating him. In a gruesome sequence, the accused took turns stabbing the boy several times. After ensuring he was dead, they threw his body into the water and fled the scene, the officer said. The motorcycle used in the crime has been recovered.