64yearold Gurugram Man Beaten To Death Body Burnt 3 Neighbours Held Police

Gurugram: A 64-year-old man who had been missing from Gurugram’s Khandsa area for a week was allegedly beaten to death by three of his neighbours, who then burnt his body in a secluded open plot to destroy evidence, police said on Friday.

The murder came to light after the three suspects — Vishesh Tomar (18) from Ghaziabad, Mithun (30) from Bulandshahr, and Sandeep (41) from Haryana’s Sonipat district — were detained on Thursday night. They allegedly confessed to the crime, leading investigators to a site where charred bone fragments believed to be those of the deceased were recovered.

Mithun, an auto-rickshaw driver, has multiple assault cases registered against him in Ghaziabad and Gurugram, while Sandeep, who is in the dairy farming business, has a murder case registered against him in Sonipat.

During interrogation, the trio confessed to murdering the victim and setting his body on fire. They allegedly kept pouring petrol and wood on it until they were satisfied that nothing more than ash was left.

They led police to a secluded open ground, around 500 metres from Khandsa, where forensic experts recovered fragments of charred bones from the ashes on Friday.

The deceased, Balram, was an ex-serviceman. He had gone missing on the night of June 12. The family filed a missing person complaint at the Sector 37 police station on June 14.

Public relations officer of Gurugram Police Sandeep Turan said that after a week of technical and human intelligence gathering, scanning CCTV footage, and questioning family members and neighbours, the three suspects came under the scanner.

“The trio told police that Balram frequently used to abused them without any reason. On the night of June 12, an argument broke out as victim hurled abuses at them again. This time, the trio brutally assaulted him with sticks resulting in his death,” he said.

Police said that after the murder, Sandeep and Vishesh transported Balram's body on a motorcycle to the secluded plot. They allegedly set the body on fire by continuously pouring petrol and combustible materials on it and stood guard for several hours until it was completely burnt.

Investigators said that the suspects had removed a gold ring from the deceased's finger after the murder and sold it to a jeweller for ₹70,000. The ring has since been recovered.

They were produced before a court on Friday and taken on police remand for further investigation.