PUNE: The Alankar police on Wednesday detained three 15-year-old boys for the alleged murder of a teenager of the same age, after luring him through a fake social media account created in the name of a girl and disposing of the body in the Mula river on January 26.
Sunita Rokade, senior inspector at Alankar police station, said the victim’s mother filed a missing person’s complaint on Tuesday after her son failed to return home. “The boy accessed his social media account using his mother’s phone. When his brother later checked the profile, he found a message from a girl sent on the day the victim went missing,” Rokade said.
Police initially traced the message to the girl, but investigations revealed that she had not contacted the victim on January 26. “Further analysis of the account activity showed that someone had created a fake profile using the girl’s name and photographs to lure the boy,” Rokade said.
Digital evidence led investigators to a 15-year-old boy, who allegedly confessed during questioning that he, along with two other minors, killed the victim and threw the body into the river.
After the confession, police and fire brigade teams searched the Mutha river late Wednesday evening but were unable to recover the body.
According to Rokade, the prime suspect was reportedly in a relationship with the girl and had grown resentful as her friendship with the victim deepened. “He told investigators he strongly opposed their friendship,” she said.
On Republic Day, the accused allegedly used the fake social media account to contact the victim and persuaded him to meet. They then took him to a secluded spot along the Mutha riverbank in the Deccan area, where they allegedly bludgeoned him with a stone before dumping the body into the river.
All three suspects and the victim were residents of Kothrud. Police said they were school dropouts who did odd jobs to support themselves.
