BENGALURU: Angry over being rebuked for knocking on the door repeatedly, a flower vendor killed his neighbour’s 6-year-old grandson by drowning him in a sump at a construction site in Bilekahalli on Bannerghatta Road on Saturday.
Mico Layout police have arrested Mahesh (21) for killing Manoj Kumar, a Class 1 student at a private school in RT Nagar. The boy’s father James runs a tailoring shop in Hebbal. James and his wife Anitha Mary, who are residents of Mariyanapalya, have a daughter too. Manoj and his mother had gone to his grandmother Sagaya Mary’s house in Bilekahalli for the weekend.
Police said that around 5.30 am on Saturday, Mahesh’s mother sent him to bring flowers from Sagaya’s house, who is also a flower vendor. Anitha, who opened the door, abused him for knocking on the door repeatedly and disturbing her son who was sleeping. Enraged, Mahesh shouted back and left the place warning that she would pay a heavy price for this.
At 8.30am, Mahesh found Manoj playing outside the house and took him along after convincing the boy that he would buy him chocolates. He took Manoj to a construction site, pushed him to the sump and closed it with a stone slab.
About two hours later, Anitha started looking for her son to give him a bath. When she did not find him, she and her mother Sagaya went in search of the boy and inquired with neighbours, who joined in the search. One of them said the boy was last seen with Mahesh. When the locals questioned Mahesh, he feigned ignorance. It was then that Anitha and Sagaya alerted the police.
Mico Layout police took Mahesh for questioning. Initially, Mahesh said he had gone to a nearby site to pluck flowers and that he had not seen the boy at all. But when police grilled him further, he confessed that he dumped the boy in a sump. He led the police to the construction site. Police conducted mahazar and shifted the body for post-mortem. Mahesh was handed to judicial custody.