Two teenagers from Thane allegedly killed their classmate to fund a birthday party and buy a motorcycle. The grade 12 students kidnapped their 17-year-old classmate to sell his 7-gram gold chain and attempted to mislead the police after hiding his body.
The incident occurred on September 24 in Azad Nagar, when the victim left his house in the evening. The minor did not return home that night, which prompted his father to file a complaint at the Kasarvadavali police station on September 25. The police initially registered a kidnapping case and started searching for the boy.
Meanwhile, one of the accused told the police that he had seen the missing victim head towards Ghodbunder Road on a white Activa scooter with an unidentified individual. The accused allegedly pretended to be sad about his classmate’s disappearance.
During the investigation, the police checked footage from 80 to 90 CCTV cameras in the area, but they failed to make a breakthrough. However, while tracking the missing boy’s phone and analysing the suspected boys’ phones, the police became suspicious of their behaviour.
According to Loksatta, when the accused was questioned again on October 15, he confessed to the police that he had committed the murder along with another friend. The suspects said they wanted to sell the victim’s gold chain, worth around ₹1 lakh, to help them raise money for a birthday party and buy a motorcycle.
He led the police to Brahmand Phase 2, a forested area where the body had been dumped.
The accused allegedly told investigators that they lured the victim to a location near Brahmand Phase 2 on Ghodbunder Road on the night of September 24 under the pretext of smoking. When the victim reached the secluded area, they reportedly stabbed him with a knife and crushed his face with a stone. To hide the evidence, they doused the body with petrol and burned it.
The minors also broke the victim’s mobile phone and threw it into a moving bus, attempting to mislead the police while tracking the missing teenager’s tower-location data.
The police uncovered the body with the help of the fire brigade in a densely forested area near Brahmand Phase 2.
The officers said that the duo had recently watched Drishyam 3, after which they conspired to commit the crime. The suspects were well-versed in the idea of destroying evidence, taking inspiration from the film.
The Kasarvadavali police have booked the two minors under Sections 103 (1) (murder) and 238 (destruction of evidence) of the BNS.
