Friends killed teen over Rs 2,500 in Delhi

Nine school students 'planned' the murder of their teenaged friend after one of them was enraged at the victim informing his father that he had not returned Rs 2,500 which he had borrowed, police said on Monday.

They allegedly murdered 15-year-old Yash, a standard X student of Cambridge School in Sriniwaspuri, in New Delhi on Saturday evening, while he was on way to his friend's place to study for the upcoming Central Board of Secondary Education examinations. The incident took place some 100 metres away from the boy's house.

"We have detained all the nine boys. Though they don't study in the same school as Yash, they became friends since they stayed in the same locality," said Virender Chahal, additional commissioner of police (south-east). According to Chahal, one of the accused had borrowed Rs 2,500 from Yash in December 2010, which he was asking him to return.

"The accused was agitated that Yash had told his father about it. He allegedly planned the murder with the friends. None of the detained boys have any previous criminal backgrounds. They are students of standards IX to XII, and belong to the lower middle-class," Chahal said.

According to the police, a friend had called Yash to his house for combined study. Initially, he was not keen to go, but went because of his friend's insistence. While on way, the official said, Yash was waylaid by the group and started beating him up.

During the scuffle, one of them allegedly stabbed him in the back, and all of them fled the scene. An profusely bleeding Yash called his friend from his mobile phone, and narrated the incident. "He said he was lying on the road and bleeding. His friend informed Yash's parents who had by then returned home," he said.

Gupta then rushed Yash to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, from where he was shifted to the trauma centre, where he succumbed to his injuries at around 9:30 pm, the official said. The boy, who had borrowed money from Yash, had visited Yash's house two days ago to invite the family for a function at his house. The Gupta family had moved to Sriniwaspuri two years ago.