Man beaten to death by four for spending money they gave him to clear electricity bill

A 33-year-old man was beaten to death allegedly by his friends after he spent a part of the money given by one of them to pay the electricity bill to clear his father’s loan instalment, police said, adding that three persons, including the prime suspect,were arrested Thursday

A 33-year-old man was beaten to death allegedly by his friends after he spent a part of the money given by one of them to pay the electricity bill to clear his father’s loan instalment, police said, adding that three persons, including the prime suspect,were arrested Thursday.

Man beaten to death by four for spending money they gave him to clear electricity bill

Police identified the deceased as Indra Kumar and said he could not pay the bill on time, which infuriated his close friend Sagar, the prime suspect in the case, who had given Kumar ₹19,000 to pay the power bill for running a water pump to irrigate his fields. The other arrested persons were identified as Mukesh Yadav and Hitesh Yadav. A fourth person is on the run, police said

Police said the incident took place at Ghosgarh in Bilaspur around 8.30pm on Tuesday.

They said an injured Kumar was rushed to the community health centre in Pataudi but given his critical condition, he was shifted to a government hospital in Sector 10A where he succumbed to injuries during treatment early Wednesday morning.

Police said a toe nail of Kumar’s appeared to have been pulled out and his limbs were swollen from the brutal assault.

Dharambir Kumar, assistant commissioner of police (crime-II), said the names of the four suspects cropped up during the initial investigation and it appears that they took Kumar to the outskirts of the village and brutally assaulted him.

“We arrested Kumar’s close friend Sagar who had given him ₹19000 to pay the electricity bill and their two friends Mukesh Yadav and Hitesh Yadav. One suspect was still on the run,” he said.

“All four took Kumar to the outskirts where they consumed liquor together. An altercation broke out between Sagar and Kumar and they assaulted Kumar brutally, resulting in his death,” the ACP said.

Kumar's father Deep Chand (64) said Sagar had given his son the bill and the amount on January 18.

Chand said the next day, he asked Kumar for ₹3,500 to pay the monthly instalment of a loan that he had taken from a villager.

“Kumar gave me ₹3,000 from Sagar’s money. He assured me that he would pay the bill after a few days as Sagar won’t object,” he Chand said.

“But Sagar was annoyed when he got to know that the bill was yet to be cleared. He came to our home on Monday and took away ₹16,000 and the bill. He asked me to pay ₹3,000 by Tuesday as the bill was due that day,” Chand said.

He alleged that when they couldn’t pay Sagar the ₹3,000, he reached their residence around 5pm on Tuesday, called Kumar out, and took him away in a car with three other friends to a spot outside the village.

“Sagar rang me from my son’s phone asking about the money at 7.30pm. My son took the phone and urged me to assure Sagar that we will pay him within a day or two. Afterwards, the call got disconnected,” Chand said.

Chand said later, the suspects drove up to his residence in the car, threw his son out and fled around 8.30pm.

“We rushed outside on hearing my son’s screams. He had bruises all over his body. We immediately took him to Pataudi CHC and later to the government hospital seeing his critical condition. He later died there,” he said.

Investigators said Kumar’s father was a retired senior section supervisor of MTNL who owns a small multi-purpose store in Ghosgarh. They said Kumar is survived by two daughters and a son, all aged below 10 years.

Sub-inspector Trilok Tanwar, in charge of Jamalpur police post, said the body was handed over to the family after an autopsy on Thursday evening.

On Chand’s complaint, an FIR against the four suspects was registered under sections 34 (common intention), 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act at Bilaspur police station on Wednesday night.