A 20-year-old man killed a delivery boy and later burnt his body, after keeping it at his residence in Karnataka’s Hassan district for four days, failing to arrange money for an iPhone that he had ordered from an online shopping site, police said, as reported by The Indian Express.
Police said accused Hemanth Datta, a resident of Arasikere town, was arrested on Saturday. The deceased has been identified as 23-year-old Hemanth Naik, who belonged to the same town.
CCTV footage showed the accused carrying the dead body in a two-wheeler inside a gunny bag in an empty street on Saturday.
Police said that Datta had ordered the iPhone worth Rs 46,000 from online shopping site Flipkart and opted for pay-on delivery. When Naik delivered the phone on February 7, Datta asked him to open the box. However, Naik refused and asked Datta to pay for it.
Police said Datta then allegedly stabbed Naik and kept the body at his home for four days, and later took the body near a railway bridge, poured kerosene and burnt it at an isolated place.
Naik’s brother Manjunath Naik filed a missing complaint on February 8. While police searched for Naik, Manjunath’s friend informed on February 16 that a body was found near the railway bridge, which was suspected to be of Naik.
Manjunath then approached the police again and filed another complaint.
Police then registered a murder case and started tracking the deceased’s number and the last location showed Datta’s residence. When police officers raided Datta’s home, they found Naik’s iPhone and other articles of the delivery boy.
Datta was arrested and Arasikere police said that he was handed over to judicial custody.
Speaking about the incident, Hassan Superintendent of Police Hariram Shankar on Monday said that Datta had ordered a second-hand iPhone, as reported by PTI.
“Hemanth Datta did not have money to pay. He asked the delivery boy to stay at home saying he was getting the money. Datta then planned to eliminate him with a knife. When Naik was busy scrolling his phone, Datta slit his throat and stabbed him to death,” he said.
“It was a very challenging case for us because there was no motive to murder. The victim did not have any enmity or any criminal background. The murder was only to get an iPhone without paying money,” the SP added.
An investigating officer said that Datta was earlier working with an e-commerce platform and had quit his job. He had ordered the iPhone, but unable to manage the money for the premium phone, he decided to kill Naik.
Hemanth Naik was a college drop out and returned to his hometown after working in Bengaluru for a while. He was working as a delivery agent with Ekart logistics for the last eight months.