A teenage boy in India strangled a little girl to death over a gambling debt, before trying to burn her body. [Image: Shutterstock.com]

Tragic and horrific

A tragic and horrific crime in the city of Gurugram just southwest of New Delhi has rocked India. A 16-year-old boy has murdered a 9-year-old girl as he attempted to rob a house to repay his gambling debts.

attempted to dispose of her body by burning it

According to the Hindustan Times on Wednesday, the unnamed boy strangled the girl to death. A police report states the suspect then attempted to dispose of her body by burning it with ground mothballs: “a trick he learnt from a Hindi true-crime TV show.”

A Civil Hospital Gurugram forensic doctor confirmed the girl died of strangulation and had “50% burn injuries on her right side of the body and 10% on her left side.”

A report by the Gurugram Police revealed the boy lost ₹20,000 ($239) gambling online, got pressured into repaying money, and hatched a jewellery heist that ended in the girl’s murder.

Money pressure

According to the Times, a friend of the suspect was hounding him for money, having loaned it to him after the gambling loss. Gurugram Police Assistant Commissioner Naveen Kumar stated the under-pressure teen admitted he first tried to steal from multiple places but with no success.

He then hatched a plan to steal jewellery from the victim’s mother’s house. Since the boy knew the mother, “he knew which cupboard contained her jewellery and he was aware of where the keys were kept,” ACP Kumar said.

strangled the girl with a traditional dupatta scarf

The teen’s plan fell apart when the victim “caught him stealing and raised an alarm.” Acting in what he told police was “spur of the moment,” the boy strangled the girl with a traditional dupatta scarf.

The girl, however, started breathing again, prompting the suspect to strangle her to death. ACP Kumar added he then “quickly got naphthalene balls and camphor placed next to a temple in the next room and set her on fire.”

One regret

According to the Guragram Police, the boy has only expressed one regret over the crime. That he got caught.

Police state the suspect has repeatedly changed his statements and has refused to reveal the identity of his money-loaning friend. The murder suspect appeared before the Juvenile Justice Board before authorities placed him in protective custody.

Crime investigators on the case stated they “will take permission from court to take the minor’s DNA samples.”