Thane: Two 17-year-old college students from Thane allegedly stabbed their childhood friend, also 17, last month to steal his gold chain to fund a birthday party and buy a bike, and hid his body in dense bushes.The boys allegedly plotted the murder meticulously and initially sent Thane police on a wild goose chase with misleading information, apparently drawing inspiration from a Bollywood film and online content. They were nabbed on Thursday and sent to a juvenile remand home. The corpse has been recovered.All three had done their schooling together and hung out occasionally since enrolling in different colleges. Police said eyeing their friend’s gold chain, the two accused called him to an isolated thicket near Brahmand Phase 2, Thane, late on Sept 24. After the friend reached the spot, they allegedly stabbed him to death with a knife and fled with his chain. The chain was sold and the plan was to celebrate the birthday of one of the accused with the money.The victim’s family, meanwhile, approached Kasarwadavli police after he failed to return home. A kidnapping case was lodged. When police started speaking to the teen’s friends during their investigation, one of the accused told them that he had seen him heading in a different direction on that fateful day. “The boy initially appeared distressed over his friend’s disappearance and claimed he had seen him riding a scooter with another youth,” said DCP (zone V) Prashant Kadam.To hoodwink police further, the boys allegedly threw the victim’s phone into a bus to make it look like he was on the move. One of them later returned to the scene of crime and attempted to burn the body to destroy evidence, said Nivrutti Kolhatkar, senior inspector, Kasarwadavli police.Police pulled up footage from over 90 CCTV cameras along the route one of the accused claimed the victim took and realised they had been misled. Inconsistencies in his account prompted them to summon him for fresh questioning, where he confessed to committing the murder along with his friend, said assistant police inspector Amol Kolekar.Charges of murder and causing the disappearance of evidence or giving false information have been added to the FIR. Police are tracing the buyer of the chain and the victim’s phone.
