My son's act worse than death sentence, says suspect's father

Parents of one of the juvenile accused of murdering a nine-year-old boy from their village in are now coming to terms with the consequences of their son’s act.

“What has he done! Usne eik kacchi kali kaat di (he has nipped a bud). How can we walk in the village now,” said the accused’s mother between sobs.

Living in a small one-bedroom house, not far from the victim’s home, parents of the alleged murderer and the victim belong to the same caste.

“Majority of the people in this village are Jats. We are also Jats and for us social honour is very important. What my son has done is worse than a death sentence. I wish I could die now,” said the father.

Particularly painful for the parents of the accused is the fact that their son abducted and murdered someone whom the entire village used to adore.

“Lalit was such a nice boy. He used to call me dada, and my wife dadi. Every evening he used to come here to play marbles. And whenever he would see us, he would greet us with folded hands,” said the accused’s father, who is a driver.

He knows all the family members of the murdered child, and had very good relations with them.

“I am indebted to Lalit’s father as he helped me in my bad phase by lending more than Rs 50,000 to me. I still owe around Rs 30,000 to him. I don’t know if I could ever stand in front of him know,” he said.

According to the boy’s parents, he fell into bad company when he failed in class 9. “I urged him to re-apply as a private student and at least complete his 10th, but he had given up on studies by then and had fallen into bad company. He had started smoking cigarettes, drinking liquor and used to roam with his friends in the village,” the father remembered.

As his habits changed, his parents’ modest income proved insufficient. According to some villagers, the boy had started committing petty thefts of two-wheelers in the area, and used to sell them off in far-off places.