BENGALURU: An alert ambulance driver tipped off the police when a group of four men were trying to disappear with the body of a 36-year-old construction labourer whom they had murdered.
The police have arrested the accused who have been identified as Ramkaran, Shivaji, Obala Reddy and Rama Mohana Reddy.
The victim was identified as Chintu Sah, 36, a resident of Kaggadasapura, and a native of Bihar. Chintu was a construction labourer and was beaten to death by his co-workers, Ramkaran and Shivaji, on Tuesday around 4 pm over Rs 300 the victim had borrowed from the accused.
They then informed Obala Reddy, the mason, and Rama Mohana Reddy, the building owner, about the murder. Fearing arrest, the four hatched a plot the whole night. On Wednesday morning around 6.30 am, Obala Reddy called the victim’s brother, Mahadev Kumar, 31, residing near KR Market and told him to come near the KR Puram Government Hospital as his brother was serious. When Kumar went near the hospital, they informed him about his brother’s death but did not tell him the cause of the death.
The accused had hired an ambulance and forced Kumar to take his brother’s body to Bihar. Suspecting foul play, the ambulance driver refused to take the body without the postmortem being done since there were injury marks on the body. The driver also informed the police.
The accused then escaped from the spot. The police who rushed to the spot sent the body for postmortem and made Kumar file a complaint.
“The murder was committed by Ramkaran and Shivaji. The building owner and the mason are booked for trying to dispose of the evidence to screen the offenders. The body was handed over to Kumar after the postmortem. The final rites were conducted at a cemetery,” said an officer. A case of murder and causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offenders have been registered against the four accused.