India: Pupils killed boys 'to get school holiday'
Police in India have arrested three schoolchildren for allegedly strangling two small boys in the hope that their deaths would cause their school to temporarily close, police said today.
The three students, aged between 12 and 13, reportedly confessed to strangling an eight-year-old boy and his five-year-old brother so that their boarding school would close down, said a police officer in the Jalna district, about 200 miles east of Mumbai.
"When questioned, the boys said they knew this school gave a holiday when a child had died last year and thought they could get another holiday this year," the spokesman said.
"They looked happy when they were being sent away from school," the Mumbai-based DNA newspaper quoted investigating officer Shirish Rathod.
"It was as if the three had finally got the long-desired holiday."
During questioning, the boys "narrated the entire sequence of events quite vividly. It is as if they are proud of their act," Rathod said in the DNA report.
The police spokesman said the three lured the two brothers, both new to the school, to an isolated spot and killed them before dragging their bodies into an unused school restroom.
Authorities found the bodies of the boys after their nine-year-old sister reported them missing the next morning.
The spokesman said a post mortem examination confirmed the children had been strangled.
The case is likely to be heard by a juvenile court in October, police said.
In India, people convicted of murder face a maximum sentence of 15 years and cannot be sentenced to death or life imprisonment if they were under 16 at the time of the act.
