ASSEMBLY POLL '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS '98
ARCHIVES

After killing her, the 4-year-olds went home to watch TV

Our correspondent in Kanpur

Inside Maharjpur police station, the three four-year-old boys were enjoying themselves. Shahrukh tossed pencils at Saddam, which the latter caught and returned. And Adil, when he wasn't scampering all over the place, joined in the general merriment.

While the policemen watched the murderers fascinated.

Yes, Adil, Shahrukh and Saddam have been charged with murder. Of a two-year-old girl, Parveen, at Hathipur village near Kanpur.

"Pehle Parveen ne humko kata. (Parveen bit us first)," the culprits told the police innocently after they were bribed with sweets, "Phir humne usko patthar se mara (Then we hit her with stones)."

Patient questioning revealed more facts. On the afternoon of March 14, the boys were playing near a pond. They started climbing a tree, which fascinated Parveen who was with them. She insisted on going up. But the boys refused to help her, prompting her to bite Saddam's ankle and Adil's hand.

The boys' response was very violent -- they picked up some stones and started hitting Parveen. When she slumped to the ground, Saddam ran home and returned with a kitchen knife, which he tried to push into the already dead child.

The boys then dumped Parveen's body in a drain a little away. That done, they happily went home and washed the blood off their hands.

"Phir humne TV par picture dekha aur so gaye (Then we watched a film on TV and went to sleep)," the threesome told the police.

No tremor marks their speech as they, taking turns, narrate the incident. Nor does remorse play on their pathetically young faces. The fact that they are, at age four, murderers haven't sunk in. Such thoughts were reserved for the grown-ups -- the parents and the policemen.

Some say the boys reported the incident to their parents, and were told to keep it quiet -- but that, as of now, remains just rumor.

"Humne socha bhi nahin tha ki hamara bachcha aisa kam kar sakta hai (We didn't even think that our child would be able to do such a thing)," was the stunned reaction of Saddam's father.

Adil's family confesses the boy narrated the incident. "But we thought he was cooking up a story," a relative said.

The police, meanwhile, find themselves in a quandary. "Any child below the age of seven cannot be recognised as a criminal under the Indian Penal Code," pointed out Kanpur Senior Superintendent of Police M A Ganapathy, "These boys were apparently influenced by TV serials and films. It is not normal for four-year-olds to kill and then attempt to hide the body."

"The girl's father, who had earlier insisted on a first information report against the boys, has now decided not to name the children," he added.

The incident has drawn attention from many voluntary organisations offering psychiatric help to the culprits. "The boys have already demonstrated their criminal tendency. They need professional help," the police agree.

Tell us what you think of this report