All the five boys allegedly involved in the brutal murder of one-and-a-half-year-old Dylan Lobo and his grandmother, Letecia Mendes (52), at I C Colony, Borivali, on Wednesday, belong to well-to-do families.

The boys were introduced to Mendes on November 17 at 8.30 pm and the murder was committed barely 48 hours later.

The MHB Colony police yesterday arrested the sons of a well-known jeweller, teacher and manager of an off-shore rig for the murders. The accused, who had been identified as college students, stole jewellery worth Rs 75,000.

The boys, identified as Clay Fernandes (19), Ashish Dominic Baravale (20), Clinton Benjamin Fernandes (16), Wilfred Francis Dias, alias Babu (19) and Karan Khanna are all residents of Marve Road in Malad (W).

One of the accused, Karan, is the son of a well-known jeweller from west Mumbai. Wilfred’s mother is a teacher in a school in Borivali, and Clinton’s father is a manager at an off-shore rig. Ashish and Wilfred are students of Elphinstone College and Rizvi Catering College respectively.

“Though robbery was the motive, the boys are not from poor families. All of them are from well-to-do families and it is still not known what made them act the way they did,” said Additional Commissioner of Police (north-west) Madhu Shinde.

“We have just arrested the accused and are yet to interrogate them in detail,” said an officer from the Malad police station.

All the five used to hang out together in the evenings because they lived in the same area. It was on one such evening that they planned the murders. The boys had been introduced to Letecia Mendes by Wilfred (whose mother is a friend of the Mendes family), and decided that she was an easy target, as she lived alone and was seemingly well-off.

When they met Mendes, who ran a cookery class, they gained her confidence, claiming they were all students of Rizvi Catering College and wanted to learn cooking. The unsuspecting victim agreed and called them to her house on November 19 at 2 pm.

When the accused reached Mendes’ home, her married daughter Glenda Lobo (24) and her one-and-half-year-old son Dylan were also in the house. They had not counted on Glenda, who lives in Pune and was visiting her mother.

Mendes took them to kitchen for the classes, while Glenda and her son stayed in the bedroom.

After nearly two hours, Glenda heard her mother scream and rushed out, only to be attacked by the five youths. Ashish pushed her on to the floor and assaulted her with a knife. Glenda, who sustained severe neck injuries, fell unconscious.

The boys took a gold chain, gold ring, earrings and some imitation jewellery worth Rs 75,000 from the house. Not wanting to leave any eyewitnesses behind, they hanged one-and a half year old Dylan with a phone wire from the ceiling fan and escaped.

Miraculously, Glenda survived the attack. Based on her testimony, the five youth were nabbed.