Street kids kill man for cell phone, three minors held

Juveniles stab him after he refuses to give them his phone

Refusal to hand over a mobile phone to intoxicated street children led to murder of a 46-year-old man at Zakhira in west Delhi. The three juveniles were apprehended on Thursday and the knife  used in the crime was also recovered.

On the night of January 22, police received information about a middle-aged man lying injured near Prem Nagar Phatak at Zakhira.

By the time police arrived, the victim, identified as Patel Nagar-resident Dhirender Kumar, had died.

Left with no witnesses or information on the motive for the murder, police slowly gathered information and managed to apprehended three children, aged between 13 and 15, at Patel Nagar.

Confess crime

Police said they have confessed to the murder.

Around 8.30 pm on January 22, they were allegedly sitting and inhaling whitener besides the railway tracks. When they saw a man walking with a mobile phone in his hand, they asked him to hand it over to them.

“Kumar refused, and when they tried to steal it from him, he took them on physically. Two of them held him while the third stabbed him repeatedly,” said a senior police officer.
Involved in snatching. The children, who were found to be addicted to the whitener fluid, were allegedly involved in snatching incidents near the railway tracks earlier too, but that night they had also carried a knife.

The children allegedly sold the mobile phone for Rs 600 and shared the amount amongst themselves.

Police have recovered the knife used to commit the crime and the stolen earphones.