A shopkeeper ganged up with two others to hold a man in captivity for a week, beat him to death and throw his body into a drain. The victim allegedly stole scrap materials from the shop.
The horrific murder was reported from eastern Bengaluru. Police have arrested three suspects.
Police found the body of an unknown man in a drain in Ramamurthy Nagar on March 4. They opened a murder investigation but couldn't identify the deceased. The victim's photographs were sent to all police stations, and missing persons' records were checked. But the search didn't yield any results, said Bheemashankar S Guled, Deputy Commissioner of Police (East).
Recently, a woman from Muslim Colony visited the KG Halli police station and filed a missing person complaint. She said her son 36-year-old Saifulla had been missing for 40 days. She said that a shopkeeper named Prashanth N could be involved in her son's disappearance because he had accused him of stealing from his scrap shop.
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Police showed the family the picture of the body found in the drain, as well as valuables found on the person. The body also bore distinct marks. The family positively identified the deceased as Saifulla.
Police picked up Prashanth, 34, for questioning, and he spilled the beans. Prashanth was upset that someone had been stealing materials from his scrap shop for the last few months. In late February, he caught Saifulla red-handed.
Prashanth told the shop owner, Shaikh Zabihullah, 26, about it. Prashanth, Zabihullah and another person named Shahbaz alias Baban, 28, ganged up to hold Safiulla captive in a shed. They beat him so badly that he died after a week. They disposed of the body in a drain on March 4, according to the DCP.