Assaulted boy dies after retracting statement

Vadodara, Jan 3 (UNI) Anil Parmar, a 13-year-old boy from Anand, today succumbed to his burn injuries at the SSG Hospital here, few hours after he retracted his earlier statement in which he had implicated members of a Patel family for assaulting him.

The condition of the boy was very critical ever since he was shifted here on Sunday.

The boy, reportedly, had first told the police he had been assaulted and then set afire by three members of Kaushik Patel's family at Parvata village in Umreth taluka of Anand district.

Police, however, claimed that the boy today, hours before his death, retracted his earlier statement after FSL experts and police investigations brought forth the fact that the incident had occurred in the boy's house and not in the house of the Patels as earlier stated.

Police claimed that in today's declaration, the boy had admitted that he had tried to commit suicide by pouring kerosene on his body after he was physically assaulted by the Patels and, later, by his own father, Ram Parmar for damaging the standing crop in the Patel family's farm while trying to catch a stray kite.

The boy's father had also corroborated the facts, police claimed. Even though a case under section 307 of the Indian Penal Code, pertaining to attempt to murder, was registered on the basis of Anil's initial statement against Kaushik Patel, his son Amit and their relative Rajit Patel, no arrests had been made in view of this development, police said.

Meanwhile, police have registered a cross-complaint lodged by the Patel family against the boy's uncle for allegedly assaulting their family members for ''attempting to murder the boy''.

UNI