Uttarakhand man kills 15-year-old son for stealing salary

A man allegedly strangled his 15-year-old son to death on Tuesday in Rudrapur area of Uttarakhand’s Udham Singh Nagar district over suspicions that the latter stole his salary. The police arrested the accused the same day, and a case was formally registered on Wednesday.

The accused, 45-year-old Devi Dutt Gangwar of Uttar Pradesh’s Pilibhit district, had been living with his family in Rudrapur’s Transit Camp Colony for the past four years where he worked at a local factory.

The incident came to light after the police received a call about a boy’s body lying in an empty plot in the SIDCUL area. Earlier, the victim’s cousin, Abhishek, received a call from an unknown person stating that his brother was found lying unconscious.

The Pantnagar police rushed to the location with a forensic team and identified the deceased. His body bore visible injuries to the face and other parts. The police lodged an FIR under section 103(1) (murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita against an unidentified person based on a complaint from the boy’s mother, Aarti Devi.

Senior Superintendent of Police Manikant Mishra set up five teams to crack the case as investigators examined CCTV footage and phone surveillance, which showed the son accompanying his father to school on a bicycle but never entering the school premises. Both were seen heading towards the industrial area.

“The police recovered the body of a boy from the industrial area on Tuesday. During the investigation, we found that the boy had been murdered by his own father in a fit of rage for allegedly stealing his money,” Neeharika Tomar, Superintendent of Police (Crime), US Nagar, said.

During interrogation, the father broke down and confessed to the police that he was frustrated with his son for repeatedly stealing from him and pushing the family into financial distress, Tomar said.

“Gangwar said he earns ₹18,000 a month working at a factory. On April 12, the boy and his mother returned from Pilibhit, and the very next day, he allegedly stole ₹10,000 from the father. Frustrated, Gangwar decided to kill his son on Tuesday morning,” Tomar said.

He took his son to an industrial area on the pretext of collecting firewood instead of dropping him at school. Once they reached an isolated plot, he asked the son to remove his school shirt. As the boy complied, Gangwar used the shirt to strangle him to death, and then proceeded to his factory.

Later, Gangwar called Abhishek using a disguised voice and told him that his cousin was lying unconscious at the plot.

After his arrest, Gangwar was produced in court and sent to jail. An additional charge under section 238 (tampering with evidence) of BNS has also been added to the case.