Anand Parbat death:Teen held for killing 2-year-old as part of ‘occult practice’

The Delhi Police on Wednesday said it has apprehended a 17-year-old boy for allegedly killing a two-year-old boy in Anand Parbat, central Delhi, on July 21, in what appears to be a case of “occult practices”. Police said that the suspect told them he was under the influence of “supernatural forces” when he carried out the crime.
According to police, the boy was found dead in an abandoned toilet in the morning of July 21 after he went missing an evening before. Meanwhile, the victim’s family alleged that his body bore two injuries on the stomach, which looked like bite marks and a few on the face – around the mouth and the forehead.
Deputy commissioner of police (central) Harsha Vardhan said the suspect was apprehended from Zakhira, west Delhi. During the probe, police said that several CCTV footages of the area were checked and secret informers were deployed within the area. “On July 26, while analysing the CCTV footage, one minor who was a suspect in the case was identified. The team immediately traced the movement of the accused through CCTV footage and around 9pm, the minor was apprehended by the team from Zakhira flyover,” he said.
Police said the boy confessed to the crime during interrogations. “On his instance, some bangles which the victim was wearing at the time of the incident were recovered,” the DCP said, adding that the motive of the crime was “not exactly clear because the minor said that he was under the influence of supernatural forces”.
Showing the videos of the boy’s body, his 28-year-old father said that there were two injuries on the right side of the stomach. “There was a red mark in the middle of his forehead, which led us to believe that whoever kidnapped him did it for some occult practices and sacrificed him,” he said.
The victim’s paternal aunt, 22, said they had visited the police station when the accused was apprehended and he was making statements that made them believe that their “suspicion was a fact”.
“He said that his ‘aaka’ (master) had ordered him to sacrifice seven kids and this was the first. He said that he kidnapped the child, took him to the bushes, where he bit him and drank his blood. He then took the child to the abandoned toilet, where he hit him with a stone, leading to his death,” the aunt said.
Meanwhile, the police refused to comment on the claims made by the family.