LAHORE, Aug 9: The owner of a music academy and his four accomplices, including three sons, tortured a teenaged employee to death for allegedly stealing a sound system from the academy near Shahnoor Studio on Multan Road.

The Iqbal Town police took suspects Siddique, his two sons, Baber and Aamir, and son-in-law Usman into custody and registered a murder case against them.

According to preliminary investigations, 14-year-old Ahsan Haider alias Bodi, of Mandi Bahauddin, had been employed at Siddique's academy for the past three years.

A couple of days ago, Siddique and his sons suspected involvement of Bodi in the theft of a sound system from the academy and started torturing him while detaining him at their house in Paikhaywal village. The suspects used third degree torture on the boy and he finally succumbed to wounds.

The suspects were planning to dump the body in a drain when another employee, Sohail, informed the police which raided the house, seized the body wrapped in a mattress and arrested the suspect.

A police officer told Dawn the suspects after dumping the body wanted lodging a protest in an attempt to conceal the facts and win the sympathy of boy's family.

He said Siddique's another son, Khurram, was still at large, adding Bodi's parents lived in Juggian Nagra locality of Nawankot and an effort was in place to trace them.

He said Siddque, who was a police Razakar (volunteer), applied “police torture techniques like 'Dang' and 'Manji' and rollers” on the boy which led to his death.

SUICIDE: A 24-year-old man committed suicide in Javed Colony of Factory Area on Tuesday. Quoting family, the police said Muhammad Yasif's wife had died during delivery a year ago and he took the death of his wife and baby to his heart. He was living a perturbed life since then.

The police, however, sent the body for autopsy.

ACCIDENT: An unidentified woman appearing to be in fifties was killed in a road accident near LDA Flats in Johar Town on Tuesday. The police sent the body for autopsy and identification.