A 19-year-old man murdered and burnt the body of his friend over a phone, the police said on Monday. D Prem, a 17-year-old Intermediate student at Ship Junior College, went missing from Old Ramanthapur on Friday. His body was later found at an isolated place at Adibatla, 22 kilometers from Hyderabad.
“His body was burnt with petrol,” said the Rachakonda police on Monday at a press conference after they arrested the accused.
The police said that 19-year-old Prem Sagar and the victim were both residents of Old Ramanathpur.
On Saturday, a complaint was lodged at the Uppal police station stating that D Prem was missing since Friday. Sagar was initially taken into questioning as he was the last seen with the victim.
The police say Sagar initially tried to misguide investigators, but later confessed that he killed Prem at an isolated place at Adibatla.
Sagar was earlier working as a delivery boy for Amazon, but amassed large debts after losing his job. “He hatched a plan to eliminate Prem, to take away the victim’s mobile phone, an Honor phone. As per his plan, the accused went on his two-wheeler to the victim’s college at 4.30pm on Friday. He dropped him at Prem’s residence,’’ police said in a release.
Later in the evening, Sagar once again went to Prem’s residence. The victim informed his family members that he was going out to play cricket and left home.
The accused took Prem towards Sagar Ring Road and bought two bottles of petrol at Nadargul. “Finding something unusual, Prem questioned Sagar about this. But, the accused claimed they were first going to his friend and took him to an isolated place near the Outer Ring Road at Adibatla. He attacked the victim on his head with the stick and killed him. Later, the body was set ablaze, but in the process, he too got engulfed in flames and suffered burn injuries on his right leg,” said the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Malkajgiri, R Umamaheswara Sarma, while addressing the press meet.
The police have recovered an empty petrol bottle, a mobile phone and a bike from Sagar.