Jamshedpur, July 9: The age of juvenile delinquents seems to be getting lower. But when a delinquent is as young as seven, it is an indictment on the society.

In a shocking incident, the Govindpur police arrested four children, all 12 years old or younger with two stolen cellphones and Rs 1,700 from their respective houses last night.

The children, identified as Sekhar Kumar (7), Mukesh Kumar alias Bati (10), Bada Babu (12) and Jeetendra Kumar (12), are residents of Govindpur and Chhota Govindpur areas.

Police said all the four children are from very poor families and have never seen a classroom.

In fact, over the past few months, these children had developed the habit of stealing cellphones and cash from shops to eke out a living. They mainly targeted women at different markets of Govindpur, Birsanagar and Telco.

“The four confessed to have stolen about 12 mobile phones in the past few months, and committed theft at the same number of shops.

“After stealing the mobiles they used to sell them at a throwaway price to a man from the same locality,” said police sources.

They added that the children, however, were not able to give much information about the person who bought the stolen mobiles from them.

The four accused also informed the police about similar other gangs operating in the area and involved in stealing mobile phones and valuables from local buses and trains.

Officer in-charge of Govindpur police station Ram Lakhan Ram said: “The children have named two absconding youths as the kingpins. They are older to those in police net.”

The officer added: “We are conducting raids at their suspected hideouts and expect to arrest them very soon.”

The four children were produced before the court of chief judicial magistrate, who forwarded them to the local observation home.