A 16-year-old boy undergoing treatment for schizophrenia has been booked for culpable homicide after allegedly fatally stabbing his 8-year-old sister in Mumbra, near Mumbai, police said.
The incident took place around 2:30 am on April 15 at the family’s residence in Amrutnagar. According to investigators, the boy was attempting to imitate moves from a sword-fighting video he had been watching on his mobile phone when the knife struck his sister.
The girl’s father, a college teacher, woke up to her cries and found his son holding a knife, while the child was bleeding heavily from her neck. She was first taken to Bilal Hospital and later shifted to a civic-run facility for advanced treatment.
Despite receiving intensive care for four days, the child succumbed to her injuries on April 19. A preliminary post-mortem report cited liquefactive necrosis of the brain — a complication arising from the stab wound — as the cause of death.
Police said the teenager had been undergoing treatment for schizophrenia for the past two years, a condition that can affect perception, thinking and behaviour, sometimes leading to a loss of contact with reality.
The boy reportedly told police he did not intend to harm his sister and that the injury occurred while he was mimicking the video.
Although the father initially declined to lodge a complaint, Mumbra police registered a case on behalf of the state under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, invoking Section 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), citing the absence of intent to kill.
