13-year-old dies after scuffle with two teenagers in Delhi's Mayur Vihar

A 13-year-old boy died under mysterious circumstances after a scuffle with two teenagers near his house in east Delhi’s Mayur Vihar area, police said today.

Police registered a case of murder and apprehended two juveniles in connection with the incident, which triggered outrage among locals and a mob set afire a pan shop owned by the family of the accused brothers.

The deceased, Rajat Menon, a class IX student at a private school, had left home around 6 PM yesterday and did not return. Later it emerged that he had a fight with two teenagers, both sons of a local paan shop owner, a senior police official said.

During investigation, the police came across a CCTV grab in which they could spot Rajat and two of his friends on a scooter. They were approached by two boys and one of them could be seen hitting Rajat twice. Rajat is then seen parking his scooter and going towards a park with two of his friends and the two others who hit him.

In another CCTV grab which emerged later, police found the two teenagers rushing Rajat to a hospital, the official said.

Rajat, who is native of Kerala, was found dead nearly 500 metres away from his apartment in phase 3 of Mayur Vihar.  However, there were no external injuries on his body.

When locals raised an alarm, the two minors, with whom Rajat had a fight, rushed him to a hospital in a motorbike.  Rajat was declared brought dead by doctors there but the cause of death is yet to be ascertained, the official said.

“A case under Section 302 of IPC has been registered and two persons, both juveniles, have been apprehended,” DCP (East) Rishipal Singh said.

He further said during investigation it came to light that Rajat and his friends were heading towards a snooker parlour when the juveniles waylaid them. They entered into an altercation, which later turned to a scuffle.

An official privy to the investigation said Rajat earlier had a heated argument with the same juveniles around a month ago. When his friends were questioned, it emerged that the arguments took place over Menon and his friends having played some prank on the accused a few months ago.

The official further said after yesterday’s incident Rajat, his friends and the juveniles had all dispersed and Rajat collapsed minutes after that.

Locals staged a protest outside the police station in the morning but the situation came under control after senior officials intervened. The protesters turned violent by evening and vandalised the paan shop owned by the family of the apprehended duo.

They later set it afire, alleging that the paan shop owner used to trade in drugs too. The police are likely to register a separate case in connection with the arson incident reported in the evening.