MANDYA: KR Pet police on Monday arrested a diploma student addicted to cricket betting for allegedly killing 14-year-old boy Shashank. Dikshith (20) of Mandya who is studying diploma in KR Pet was in need of money for IPL betting and smothered Shashank to death before making away with valuables from the latter’s house, Superintendent of Police Sudheer Kumar Reddy said. Shashank of Government Employees’ Colony at Hemagiri, studying at Ashirvad English Medium School, was found dead on May 16.
The duo had known each other as Shashank’s family had rented a house of Dikshith’s aunt at KR Pet before moving to their own house. Shashank went out with Dikshith on the fateful day when the former’s parents - Sujatha, a government school teacher at Bommenahalli and Lokesh were not home. Dikshith (20) took him to an agriculture field about 500 metres away from Shashank’s house and asked him to give him money. As Shashank declined to do so without permission from his parents, Dikshith “strangulated Shashank and smothered him to death”, Reddy said.
Dikshith collected the keys of Shashank’s house from his pocket and lifted gold and silver ornaments from there, Reddy said, adding that the diploma student also stole a mobile phone from the house and sold it. The police who traced the phone came to know about about Dikshith and arrested him from his house, Reddy said.
Dikshith was produced before a court which remanded him in police custody for further investigation.