Man held for killing 9-year-old cousin

ROHTAK - A man accused of kidnapping and killing his nine-year-old cousin was arrested in Haryana’s Rohtak district Saturday, police said.

According to police, Kunal (9), son of Baldev Raj, had gone missing from his home Aug 30. He was kidnapped and later murdered by his cousin Deepak alias Sonu, in his late 20s.

Deepak was annoyed with Kunal’s father who had refused to give him money to repay his debt.

“We have arrested Deepak and he has also confessed to his crime. During interrogation, he told police that he had taken Kunal to Jawaharlal Nehru canal here on some pretext and pushed him into it. The boy died due to drowning,” Rohtak police chief B.S. Balan told reporters here Saturday evening.

“Deepak had asked his maternal uncle Baldev Raj (victim’s father) to give him Rs.100,000 as he had to repay some debt. However, Baldev refused to give him any money. This infuriated Deepak and he hatched a conspiracy to kill Kunal,” police said.

Police said that they had recovered the body of a child from the canal a couple of days ago, but it was cremated as an unidentified body as the kin of Kunal failed to identify it.

“Now we are suspecting that it was the body of Kunal,” stated Balan.