Delhi cops book two juveniles for beating class nine student to death

New Delhi: A 13-year-old boy was found dead after a scuffle with a group of teenagers near his house in east Delhi’s Mayur Vihar area, police said on Thursday.

Police registered a case of murder in connection with the incident and apprehended two juveniles.

The deceased, Rajat Menon, class IX student at a private school, had left home around 6 pm on Wednesday and did not return.

Later, it emerged that he had a fight with two teenagers, both sons of a local paan shop owner, a senior police official said.

During investigation, the police came across a CCTV grab in which they could spot Rajat and two of his friends on a scooter. They were approached by two men and one of them could be seen hitting Rajat twice.

Rajat is then seen parking his scooter and going towards a park with two of his friends and the two men who approached him.

In another CCTV grab which emerged later, police found the two teenagers rushing Rajat to a hospital.

Menon was found dead nearly 500 metres away from his apartment in phase 3 of Mayur Vihar. However, there were no external injuries on his body.

When locals raised an alarm, the two minors with whom Menon had a fight, rushed there and took him to a hospital in a motorbike. Menon was declared brought dead by doctors there but the cause of death is yet to be ascertained, the official said.

“A case under Section 302 of IPC has been registered and two persons, both juveniles, have been apprehended,” DCP (East) Rishipal Singh said.

He further said, during investigation it came to light that Menon and his friends were heading towards a snooker parlour when the two juveniles waylaid them. They entered into an altercation, which later turned to a scuffle.

An official privy to the investigation said Menon earlier had a fight with one of the two juveniles around a month ago.

When Menon’s friends were questioned, it emerged that the arguments took place over Menon and his friends playing some prank on the accused a few months ago.

The official further said after yesterday’s incident Menon, his friends and the juveniles, all left the scene and, prima facie, they did not realise at that point of time that Menon had collapsed soon after.

The deceased boy’s father, Unnikrishnan Menon, who is a native of Kerala and works at an MNC here, said, “My son went to purchase something when he was cornered and beaten up. We know who are involved and we are awaiting the postmortem report.”

The local pan shop owner claimed there was no fight in which his sons were involved and they were apprehended by police only because they were seen with Menon, being the ones who took him to a hospital.

Menon was first rushed to Malik Hospital in Mayur Vihar, which informed the matter to police, following which he was rushed to Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital. Menon’s body was sent for postmortem examination and viscera was preserved for further examination, police said.