Six-year-old murdered for scratching tractor’s paint

PK Jaiswar

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, September 12

A six-year-old boy, Shubhpreet Singh, was strangled to death at Malakpur village in the district last night. The police arrested a villager, Gurpreet Singh (18), who confessed that he committed the murder as the child used to scratch the paintwork on his tractor.

Parampal Singh, SSP, said: “Gurpreet told the police that he had repeatedly warned the boy, but to no avail.”

When the victim’s parents, who work as labourers, returned home last evening, they found Shubhpreet missing. A search at the houses of relatives and neighbours drew a blank. The family informed the Jandiala police, who reached the spot and launched a search operation. The body was found in the fodder store room of a village house around midnight.

After a preliminary probe, the police rounded up two youths who were last seen with the boy. Gurpreet was one of them. The accused told the police that he failed to dump the body in the village pond as the search operation was in progress.

The SSP said a post-mortem examination was being conducted under the supervision of a medical board. He added that it was yet to be confirmed whether the boy had been sodomised before being strangled to death with a piece of cloth.