PUNE: The Alankar police on Wednesday detained three 15-year-old boys on the charge of murdering another teenager of the same age over friendship with a girl and dumping the body into Mula river on Jan 26.Sunita Rokade, senior inspector, Alankar police, said the victim’s mother filed a missing person’s report on Tuesday after he did not return home. “The boy used to manage his social media account through his mother’s phone. When his brother later checked his profile, he discovered a message from a girl sent on the day of the victim’s disappearance,” Rokade said.
The investigation initially focused on the girl, but the police discovered she had not messaged the victim on Jan 26. “Further analysis of the profile activity revealed that someone had created a fake account using the girl’s name and photos to lure the boy out,” Rokade said.Using digital leads, the police traced the fake profile to a 15-year-old boy. During the questioning, the suspect confessed to the murder, admitting that he and his two minor accomplices had killed the victim and threw the body into the river.Following the revelation, the police and the fire brigade carried out searches in the Mutha river late on Wednesday evening but failed to trace the body.“The suspect was reportedly in a relationship with the girl and had grown increasingly resentful as she and the victim became closer,” said Rokade. “He told investigators he was strictly against their friendship.”On Republic Day, the suspects allegedly used the girl’s fake social media account to contact the victim and convinced him to turn up at the spot. They then took him to a secluded place on the Mutha riverbank in the Deccan area, where they bludgeoned him with a stone and threw the body into the river.The suspects and the deceased were residents of Kothrud. The police said they were school dropouts and did odd jobs to support themselves.
