This followed a review of the medical report and interviews with several witnesses, including S Pravin’s best friend, Nilai police chief Supt Zaludin Zaldino told The Star.

Bernama had earlier reported police as saying that Pravin could have taken his own life by drinking insecticide. This was based on a statement provided by a witness who knew Pravin.

The boy, also 15, told police last night that Pravin could have killed himself due to unrequited love.

Zaludin later confirmed this suspicion, quoting Pravin’s best friend as saying the deceased had been in love with a schoolmate who spurned his affections.

“The deceased was in love with a schoolmate but she turned him down. He threatened her that he will take his life if she did not return his love,” The Star quoted him as saying.

Zaludin told the daily that according to the friend’s testimony, Pravin had met with him on April 26, bringing with him a bottle of mineral water containing a blueish liquid.

Pravin reportedly told his friend that he wanted to commit suicide.

“The friend tried to stop him but he refused and walked into a rubber estate where we believe he drank the liquid,” Zaludin was quoted as saying.

Pravin died on Tuesday after being hospitalised at the Tuanku Jaafar Hospital in Seremban last Thursday. His mother had initially taken him to a clinic in Nilai, where the family stays, after he began vomiting and complaining of abdominal pains.

While in hospital, the boy reportedly told police that the incident had happened a day earlier when a group of schoolboys held him down before forcing him to drink a liquid.

According to Pravin, the boys had been angry with him because he had scolded them for sniffing glue.

Dad of boy forced to drink poison did not initially believe him