Murder following a quarrel over Rs 150

SUBHASISH CHAUDHURI, TT, Krishnagar, Feb. 12: A Class IX student in Nadia's Krishnagar was allegedly killed by two of his friends following a quarrel over Rs 150 that the victim had lent to one of them.

Police said the 15-year-old boy was killed after he repeatedly asked one of the friends to return the money.

The police have arrested the two schoolboys accused of killing the friend from Krishnagar early today.

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The police questioned the two boys and recovered the body of their friend from a bush in Bandighi in Krishnagar.

The victim had been missing since February 8 and was last seen with the accused students.

The police said the body had signs of strangulation and a deep injury mark in the head.

The police have charged the two boys, both 16 years old, with Sections 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) and 34 (common intention of crime) of the IPC.

They were produced before the chief judicial magistrate's court in Krishnagar and were sent to a home as they are minors. They will be produced before the juvenile justice board on Monday.

One of the arrested boys is a dropout while the other studies in Class IX

The victim's mother, a widow who works as an ayah, said she saw the accused boys accompany his son and she was told that they were going to play cricket.

The murdered boy's uncle Subhraranjan Bhowmik lodged a missing diary at Krishnagar police station on February 9.

Nadia superintendent of police Sishram Jhanjharia said: "We have arrested the two friends of the victim. During interrogation, the boys have confessed of their involvement in the murder. However, the exact motive behind the murder is not amply clear. We are examining all possible aspects including a possible argument over money."

However, a police officer said that one of the murdered boy's friends had recently borrowed Rs 150 from him and could not return the amount despite repeated appeals.

On Wednesday, when the murdered boy asked for the money, his friend abused him verbally, leading to a scuffle between the two.

"During the scuffle, one of the friends strangled him. The other friend also helped him in the murder. The duo later dumped the body in the bush," a police officer in Krishnagar said.

The victim's mother, however, said she had never noticed any abnormality in the relationship among the three friends.

"I had never found anything suspicious in their behaviour. My son and the two boys were friends. They played together and on Wednesday, he left with them. I never knew that my son had given money to one of his friends."

After body was recovered today, the boy's mother lodged a complaint against the two, accusing them of murdering his son.

As the news spread, local people blocked the Krishnagar-Nabadwip Ghat Road for six hours in protest against the murder.