The Andhra Pradesh police have detained a 14-year-old minor in conflict with the law, for allegedly murdering an 8-year-old student at a government-run hostel in the state's Krishna district.
Dasari Aditya, a Class 3 student, was found in a pool of blood in a washroom of the hostel, which is meant for Backward Classes. The boy had injuries on the neck, seemingly inflicted with a sharp object, later identified to be a kitchen knife.
After conducting a preliminary investigation, the police said that the 14-year-old, who is a student of Class 10, has been held in connection with the crime.
“The accused told us during the interrogation that he had a quarrel with Aditya in the hostel over some trivial issue and Aditya allegedly abused him. Enraged at this, he killed the junior,” Challapalli sub-inspector M Nagaraju was quoted as saying.
After allegedly committing the crime, the 14-year-old reportedly hid the knife under his matress and went back to bed.
The police also said that investigations revealed that neither the hostel warden nor the watchman noticed the incident as it happened. A departmental enquiry has been initiated, to ascertain alleged negligence by authorities as they were unaware of the incident, as it took place. There were also no CCTV cameras in the vicinity.
A case has been registered under Section 302 (Murder) of the IPC and the accused has been sent to a juvenile home. Meanwhile, Aditya's body was sent to the Avanigadda government hospital for a post-mortem and later handed over to his family.
Aditya was the son of Dasari Ravi and Adilakshmi. The couple have four children, two boys and two girls, and Aditya was the youngest. Aditya and his brother Ashok were boarders at the government-run BC hostel.