A 19-year-old Borivali resident was arrested on Saturday for allegedly bludgeoning his bullying classmate to death in September last year. In a grim reminder of how far seemingly harmless bullying can push a person, the accused took the drastic step following constant threats by the deceased of allegedly posting some embarrassing videos of the accused on social networking websites.
According to the Kasturba Marg police, Borivali resident Sandesh Borle (20) went missing on September 20 last year, and his parents registered a missing person’s complaint the next day. On October 11, a decomposed body was found behind the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, and was later identified as Borle’s. As the level of decomposition made the cause of death impossible to discern, his viscera were sent for chemical analysis, while the police initiated its own inquiries.
“We learnt that Borle had a fight with one of his friends, identified as Chetan Khankar (19) a couple of days before Borle went missing. As part of the inquiries, we picked up Khankar for questioning on Friday and on Saturday he broke down and confessed to have killed Borle,” said an officer with the Kasturba Marg police.
Khankar said that both boys used to attend the Kohinoor Technical Institute. Around a week before Borle’s murder, Khankar was made to do sit-ups in front of the class for having failed to complete an assignment, and Borle recorded the entire episode on his cellphone camera. He later showed Khankar the video and started threatening to post it on Facebook.
“On September 20, Khankar followed Borle and cornered him behind the national park. They got into a violent altercation and Khankar smashed Borle’s head with a stone. He then took Borle’s cellphone and fled,” said assistant police inspector Nishikant Sawant.
Khankar later gave the phone to a friend of his, and the police has recovered it. However, the video in question has not been found. Khankar has been arrested and remanded to police custody for a week.