15-yr-old killer inspired by TV

Mumbai: Officers probing the abduction and murder of 8-yearold Dheeraj Pandit had to interrogate the accused—his cousin Gopal (15; name changed)—for several hours before the latter admitted to the crime.      "The accused told us he had watched six episodes of a popular crime show on TV, where he picked up the nuances of abduction. This is the second case in the Borivli-Kandivli belt where a juvenile became delinquent after getting influenced by TV crime shows. We intend to write a letter to the producers to filter content," said DCP Mahesh Patil.      Officers said Gopal cooked up stories when they asked him what he had been doing the day Dheeraj disappeared. The accused and his father stay next door to Dheeraj's family in Bheem Nagar, Gorai.      The boy's body was fished out of a nullah on Wednesday. Gopal said he strangled the boy with his necktie on Sunday, stored the body in a box and flung it into the nullah early on Monday.      "We had to use a different line of interrogation as the accused is very young and we couldn't be harsh with him. Our officers convinced him that they could make out whenever he lied. This made him slightly nervous. We then discussed his religious beliefs. Eventually he said he would speak to a couple of officers and wanted the other members of the investigating team to leave. He was also afraid of the way his relatives would react once the true facts emerged," said a senior police officer.      Gopal , a class-VII student in a convent school in Gorai, withdrew Rs 50,000 from his father's account over three months to fund his passion for making helicopter models and to splurge on friends. "We will go through his father's bank statements," said inspector Ravi Adane.      The police are trying to find witnesses. "The accused told us that a couple had passed by while he was flinging the gunny bag containing Dheeraj's body into the nullah. But when we questioned the couple, they said they hadn't paid much attention to what the accused had been up to," said an officer.  DISTURBING CRIME TREND  Cases of kidnap and murder involving accused who are  minors or young adults  AUG 2012 | Ganesh Sriram (20). His friends Kalpesh Saroj and Ravindra Yadav allegedly lured him from Mira Road to a forested area in Naigaon, clobbered him to death and then demanded a ransom of Rs 8 lakh from his father AUG 2007 | Adnan Patrawala (16). Five acquaintances, including a minor, allegedly strangled this son of an Oshiwara businessman in Navi Mumbai after their ransom ( 2 crore) plan went awry. Adnan's body was found in his car on Palm Beach Road, Vashi  JUNE 2007 | Parth Panchal (9). His 16-year-old neighbour strangled him in Dindoshi, wrapped the body in a plastic sheet and kept it locked in a cupboard for two days before it was discovered. The police said the accused was depressed because he had learnt he was an adopted child