Suspecting that his best friend had illicit affair with his mother, Maharashtra teenager kills him

Latur, January 1

Suspecting his mother of having an affair, a Latur boy allegedly hacked his best friend and neighbour to death with a sickle at his shack in the fields, officials said here on Monday.

The incident took place at Vadji village under Bhada police station on Saturday after the body of Ranjit T Mali alias Balu, 22, was found in a bloodied state in the field shack.

“We registered a case of murder and launched an investigation which revealed many shocking aspects,” Bhada police station head Balasaheb Dongare told IANS.

Police teams trying to crack the case spoke to deceased Mali’s friends and relatives and learnt that he allegedly had an affair with some local woman who was his friend’s mother.

“We quickly managed to track the 32-year-old woman, who was the victim’s neighbour and started probing her in detail on her purported relationship with the deceased,” Dongare said.

Meanwhile, another police official learnt that the woman’s 17-year-old son, studying in Class XI, had given an old sickle to a friend at Vadji village and asked him to sharpen it for him to use in the fields.

“We summoned the boy for questioning, but he was evasive. We subjected him to a grilling and he confessed to the crime,” Dongare said.

As per the boy’s statement, he suspected an affair between his mother and friend Mali, and was filled with embarrassment, shame and hatred against the latter.

Incidentally, the boy and Mali – who was educated till Class X – lived in neighbouring homes and also owned adjacent fields, and the latter used to spend nights in the shack to keep an eye over the crop.

Since the two were close friends, Mali had unhindered access to the woman’s home which made her son doubt something fishy was going between them.

The boy admitted that he even quietly ‘spied’ on Mali and his mom for days, keeping a watch on their movements. After he was convinced that “there was something going on between them”, the teenager vowed to finish off his friend, and planned the killing.

He executed his plan to eliminate Mali in the early hours of Saturday and then went home, behaving normally.

Dongare said the investigation had revealed that “there was nothing serious going on between the boy’s mother and his friend”, and the murder was the outcome of a misunderstanding.

“We have checked the mobile call records of the woman and the victim, questioned her thoroughly, and though they used to chat often, there was nothing untoward between them,” Dongare added.

After the investigation is completed, the boy will be produced before the Juvenile Justice Board.