A six-year-old girl was brutally murdered in Nalasopara East on Saturday by her 13-year-old cousin, as he believed that their relatives as well as neighbours loved her more than him. The boy—who took the child to a secluded spot, strangled her and smashed her face with a boulder—told the police that he had decided to resort to murder after watching a film on Raman Raghav, a Mumbai-based serial killer who attacked all his victims with hard, blunt objects in the 1960s. The incident occurred in the evening on a hillock near the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway. The Pelhar police have recovered the blood-stained boulder.
On Saturday afternoon, the deceased’s father brought her home from school and a few hours later, all the children in the family played in the open space near their house. After sunset, when the girl didn’t return home, her parents started a search operation. A CCTV camera captured the boy taking the girl to a nearby hillock. When the father of the deceased, the teenager`s maternal uncle, asked him where she was, the teenager told him that two unknown people had murdered her. Terrified, the girl’s parents approached Pelhar the police station.
The bloodstained boulder recovered by the Pelhar police from the crime scene
“We checked CCTV footage and started questioning the boy, whose statements were inconsistent. So, I sent a team of officers to the hillock he was seen taking her to. After a thorough search, we discovered her lying motionless. She was rushed to a hospital where she was declared dead,” said Jitendra Vankoti, senior inspector of Pelhar police station. “When we asked the boy the reason for his actions, he replied that he was angry with her as relatives and neighbours would neglect him, choosing to shower love on the girl instead,” Vankoti said.
The body of the six-year-old girl at the hillock in Nalasopara East. Pics/Hanif Patel
According to Vankoti, during the investigation, the police learnt that the boy had recently watched a thriller based on the life of infamous serial killer Raman Raghav, who killed several homeless individuals, vagabonds with heavy iron rods and other such objects for no discernible reason. The incident calls attention to the complexities of emotional development and family dynamics during adolescence. Mental health experts believe that if a child feels that someone else is consistently praised or loved more than they are, it can lead to negative emotions such as jealousy and anger. Without proper outlets or coping mechanisms, these feelings can escalate into extreme actions.
Psychological speculation
Dr Arti Shroff, a psychologist, said, “Multiple factors could have influenced the boy’s violent actions. These could include abuse or neglect by the child’s parents. And he may have been somebody who was exposed to physical, emotional or sexual abuse, or even been witness to it, or he may have gone through it himself, or both. So, he may be from a dysfunctional family where there are some elements of abuse. Children who witness domestic violence pick up violent behaviour and are desensitised to it. Consuming content where violence and aggression are depicted similarly desensitises them. There may have been a lack of parental supervision where the child may have been, for a prolonged period, viewing content that is violent. The child could have poor impulse control.”
The deceased’s family approached the Pelhar police station after the boy told them two men had murdered the girl
She added, “There could be mental health issues. Some children have oppositional defiant disorder, or ODD, and impulse control issues. The prefrontal cortex of the brain is not fully developed in a child. The child may have been bullied or was in the habit of bullying others and consistently engaging in aggressive behaviour. He also may be lacking socialisation skills, where he found it difficult to make friends and be liked by peers. This may have reinforced his feelings of being rejected, unloved or neglected, which would fuel feelings of jealousy and resentment even more.”
The psychologist also warned of the dangers of children being exposed to “dark online communities”, such as the dark web. “Abuse within families, which includes physical and verbal neglect, as well as bullying by peers and the glorification of aggression in movies and the media in general, are common factors that are giving rise to aggression among children at an early age, affecting their development,” said Dr Shroff.
Pertinent questions
Renowned psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty said, “When an adolescent gets violent after seeing a movie, a detailed investigation is needed. Was he in distress before the event? Has he experienced neglect or trauma? Has the child faced physical or sexual abuse? Has he experienced rage and hate in his environment? Has he been deprived of healthy peer contact in his ecosystem or school? Is the act an expression of momentary lapse of reason and rage? Does he play truant, steal, lie, abuse drugs and exhibit exaggerated pleasure-seeking behaviour? Does he have a history of violence? Has he been aggressive since an early age? Does he suffer from depression or any serious mental illness? These questions need to be answered.”
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