A 19-year-old girl was arrested on Tuesday on charges of killing her five-year-old brother by strangulating him to death at Amarjit Colony locality of Ludhiana.

The body of the boy, Ansh Kanojia, was found outside his house on Sunday, a day after he went missing. The accused, Renu, has confessed to her crime in the presence of her parents, police said. The girl told police that she had got sick of Ansh as he used to follow her wherever she would go and she was not getting space for herself.

The boy also lied about her to their parents and she has no regrets for having committed the crime, she told the police.

The police said she used to meet a boy of the same locality and they are probing whether he had any role in the crime. She has two sisters.

Additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP, city 4) Rajveer Singh Boparai said initial probe hinted at the involvement of someone known to the family and they zeroed in the victim’s family members, neighbours and relatives.

The police said when Ansh’s mother was going to hospital on October 6 to see an ailing relative, he insisted on accompanying her.

"Renu gave him a chocolate and took her inside the house. We found that the killer had strangulated the boy with left hand and Renu is left-handed. When we questioned her in the presence of her parents, she confessed to crime," said the ADCP.

"She strangulated him to death inside and stuffed the body in a gunny bag and hid it under a bed. She also removed clothes from the body to distract the police. When her parents arrived home, she told them that Ansh had not returned," he said.

"She took the gunny bag in the wee hours of Sunday and threw it outside. She claimed to have thrown Ansh’s clothes at a vacant plot adjacent to their house. We have not recovered the clothes yet," the ADCP said.

A case under Sections of 365 (kidnapping), 302 (murder) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code was registered against unidentified accused at the Tibba police station on the complaint of the boy’s father.

Gunny bag helps police get clue

The gunny bag in which the five-year-old body was stuffed gave the police a vital clue in cracking the case. The bag was of subsidised wheat flour given to underprivileged families.

Similar four gunny bags of wheat were found in the house. The family said they had got five bags from a ration depot of which they consumed wheat flour from one.

After throwing the body outside her house, she kept the gunny bag back with other four.

First Published: Oct 10, 2018 10:06 IST