Three 15-year-old boys were detained by the police in Pune's Alankar area after they allegedly killed their teenage friend and dumped his body in the Mula River on Republic Day (January 26).
The murder took place over the teenager's friendship with a girl, after which she became the focus of the investigation.
However, when the police found out that she had not messaged the teenage boy on January 26, the tables turned, and the police took a closer look at the last social media account he had chatted with.
They soon found it was a fake profile—created using the girl's name and photos—in order to lure the teenager to a secluded spot, where the other boys killed him with a stone and dumped his body in the river.
"The boy used to manage his social media account through his mother's phone. When his brother later checked his profile, he discovered a message from a girl sent on the day of the victim's disappearance," said Sunita Rokade, senior inspector, Alankar police, as per a Times of India report.
The police traced the messages to a 15-year-old boy, who confessed to the crime and named two of his accomplices who had helped—all minors and school dropouts, hailing from the Kothrud area.
"The suspect was reportedly in a relationship with the girl and had grown increasingly resentful as she and the victim became closer ... He told investigators he was strictly against their friendship," Rokade added.
After the suspect's confession, the police launched search operations to find the victim's body. They also looked in the Mutha River, which at one point joins with the Mula River to form the Mula-Mutha River, but to no avail. As of Wednesday, the victim's body was still missing.