16-yr-old who killed 9-yr-old girl committed 20 thefts this year: Gurugram cops

Police officers investigating the gruesome murder of a nine-year-old girl in Gurugram, where a 16-year-old neighbour strangled her and set her body ablaze, said on Wednesday that the accused has told them that he has committed at least 20 thefts this year in his desperation to pay off his rising gambling debts.

The father of the 16-year-old, meanwhile, has told investigators that he will not hire a legal counsel for his son, and is not willing to even meet the accused.

Gurugram Police officers said that the accused minor was recently caught stealing a bicycle of a neighbour, said Naveen Kumar, assistant commissioner of police.

“He is a habitual thief, and he was often caught stealing money from his parent’s wallet and lockers. He also ran away from his house when his father tried to reprimand him for his poor performance in studies when he failed in maths in his board exam. Throughout our discussion with him on his studies, he does not appear to be serious about his career and is keener towards gaming,” he said.

Kumar said the boy was under pressure to pay back ₹20,000 he had borrowed from two of his friends, who had given him a deadline of July 1.

The 16-year-old had committed the murder on Monday after the nine-year-old girl caught him stealing her mother’s jewellery when he visited her house purportedly to help with her homework, the officers said. They added that he used ground naphthalene balls to quickly incinerate the body – a trick he learnt from a Hindi true-crime TV show to quickly dispose of the body.

“He told us that he was not worried about selling the ornaments to jewellers as he had already identified more than one shop where he was confident he would manage to sell the stolen ornaments,” Kumar said.

“Through the past two days, the boy has expressed no remorse at all. He said he has committed the murder, and confessed to it. He also confessed before the juvenile justice board (JJB) regarding the assault and murder and detailed the sequence of how he killed the girl who used to address him as ‘bhaiya’,” he said.

Meanwhile, the father of the accused teenager was already troubled and was not willing to meet him or help in in any way with his legal defence, Kumar said.

“His father told us that he will not hire legal counsel to fight his case since he has brought shame to them and they are guilty for what he has done. Both the families are under trauma except the juvenile,” he said.

Investigators said they are also looking to verify if the boy consumed drugs as well.

“We are not satisfied with his confession and we are questioning to find out, if he tried to molest the girl or any sexual assault,” said Kumar.

The boy will be produced before the JJB on Thursday after his two days protective custody gets over, said police.

The neighbours from the society said that he was not well-behaved and often troubled others. “He did not respect elders and appeared to have a lot of issues and was often abusive with others in the society,” said a neighbour requesting anonymity.