ILOILO City – A 17-year-old lad turned himself in to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Region 6 and claimed he and four friends were the ones who robbed and stabbed to death an Indian national in Barangay Lupa, Santa Barbara, Iloilo on Tuesday night.
The boy, a resident of Pavia, Iloilo, was accompanied by his father to the NBI late Wednesday night. He said his conscience bothered him.
According to the teenager, his four companions were a 19-year-old gay lad, a 20-year-old young woman, a 16-year-old boy, and another 18-year-old boy.
It was his 19-year-old gay friend who plotted the crime, claimed the boy. He said this friend and the victim, 41-year-old moneylender Harvender “Sido” Singh, were pals who had a falling out.
The plot was hatched during a drinking binge at the house of their 18-year-old friend in Santa Barbara, according to the boy. His 19-year-old gay friend would fetch Singh at the victim’s apartment in Santa Barbara while the four of them would wait for the two to stop at an agreed spot in Barangay Lupa.
If the 17-year-old boy were to be believed, they ganged up on Singh but only the four others helped one another stab the moneylender.
The boy said he only kicked Singh several times then left his friends.
The NBI turned the boy over to the Santa Barbara police station.
Santa Barbara policemen and NBI operatives looked for the four others but the youngsters were not in their respective houses anymore, said Senior Inspector Rey Pabalan, municipal police chief.
“I’m appealing to these four persons to surrender,” said Pabalan.
It was the barangay tanods of Lupa, Santa Barbara who discovered Singh’s body and alerted the police about the crime on Tuesday night.
The victim died of multiple stab wounds on his back. He also had a slash wound on the neck.
It was initially thought that Singh was on his way home when attacked after a day of collecting payments from borrowers.
Policemen recovered only Singh’s mobile phone. The victim’s wallet was gone./PN
