Boy tied, beaten with wooden sticks

Initial autopsy suggests the 16yearold boy died of haemorrhage shock

two men arrested for allegedly lynching a 16-yearold boy in Mukundpur on Tuesday morning told police during interrogation that they had tied him up and thrashed him with wooden sticks until he died.

Rajkumar and Nand Kishore have been arrested while police are trying to find the four absconding men who have switched off their phones.

The boy’s family members suspected he was tied and beaten up by the six accused after they noticed bruises and injury marks on his hands.

Deputy commissioner of police (northwest) Aslam Khan said the two arrested men admitted they tied him up and thrashed him with two wooden sticks. “We recovered the sticks,” the DCP said.

The dead boy was wearing a white vest, which his elder brother Mushahid said was not his. “The accused changed my brother’s clothes. They tried to dress up the crime scene,” Mushahid had said on Tuesday.

But Khan said Rajkumar and Kishore denied that they changed the boy’s clothes.

Police on Wednesday recreated the crime scene according to the two men’s confessions. Khan said efforts to nab the absconders were under way and raids are being conducted at their possible hideouts.

“The accused have switched off their mobile phones. We have mounted technical surveillance and as soon as their location is spotted, they will be arrested. A number of people and the accused’s relatives in Delhi have been questioned,” the DCP said.

Police said the victim sustained critical injuries, mostly on his legs, and were waiting for the post-mortem report.

A senior police officer said the initial autopsy suggested that the boy died of “haemorrhage shock”. He had more than 25 identifiable external injuries all over the body apart from internal wounds. “Not any injury in particular, but multiple blows all over the body caused the death,” the officer said requesting anonymity. According to the police, the incident took place around 3.30 am but the PCR call was made at 6.30 am. “We are questioning them to establish what exactly happened between 3.30 am and 6.30 am,” Khan said.

The police had registered a case of attempt to theft and trespassing against the dead boy as the accused had alleged that they had caught him stealing from their house.

Mushahid on Wednesday requested police to arrest the absconding men. “Police are yet to arrest the four men. I request the police to take strict action and bring us justice,” he said.