The passion of a 14 year-old- teenager boy for hi-tech goods took away the life of a girl of 10 years age in a pathetic incident in which the boy murdered the girl to take away her MP4 iPod. The incident occurred on 17th August’08 in Suri town of Birbhum district of West Bengal, about 230km from Calcutta. The boy was arrested.
Arka Das and Sagar were friends and students in the same school, the former a student of class VIII and the latter in class IX. Being friend Arka used to frequent the house of Sagar. About a fortnight ago, father of Sagar bought him an iPod, which played songs and videos and also had an inbuilt camera. Sagar’s 10-year-old sister Sheuli, a student of class III, had a speech problem and was very fond of the gadget and often used to listen music on it.
Arka came to the house of Sagar on Sunday in the absence of his friend and ‘asked Sheuli to accompany him at the Tilpara barrage near Suri town for photo session with the help of the camera of the iPod. Sheuli initially refused to comply as his brother would scold him But Arka assured her that they would return quickly before her brother returns,’said an inconsolable Aparna Dolui, the mother of Sheuli.
Arka took Sheuli on a bicycle and once near the barrage, he asked Sheuli to hand him over the iPod, which she refused to comply. He then snatched the iPod from her and pushed her from the bridge when she tried to recover the gadget. She fell 30ft down getting her head smashed against the rock guard wall on the side of the barrage.
Swapan Banerjee, the inspector in charge of the Suri police station said, “The boy went down to check if Sheuli was alive and seeing her unconscious but breathing, he strangulated her to death. He then dragged the body behind a bush and hid it. It was a murder with intension”
The boy would be produced in the court on Monday and would in all likelihood be sent for psychiatric assessment and counseling.