Man kills friend, cooks up story about his abduction

The body of Bechal Prasad Chauhan, 40 was found on the railway tracks between Thakurli and Dombivli. Representation pic

The Government Railway Police (GRP) have unearthed a murder which the accused tried to pass off as the outcome of an assault by robbers. One person has been arrested on Wednesday for the murder.

The Dombivli GRP had found a body on the tracks between Thakurli and Dombivli with the head repeatedly run over by local trains. They started investigation and found an FIR was filed at the Tilak Nagar police station about a robbery in which a person with the same description as the deceased, was allegedly abducted.

On Tuesday around 6 am, the GRP Dombivli were informed about the body of a man lying between Thakurli and Dombivli railway stations. The police took it to Shastri Nagar Hospital, Dombivli where doctors declared the man dead on arrival. An Accidental Death Report (ADR) was registered with the GRP.

"The body was mutilated as locals must have run over it multiple times. The face was beyond recognition. We tried to identify the body and got information that an FIR was filed with Tilak Nagar police station, in which the complainant had claimed robbers stopped their autorickshaw and took his friend towards the railway tracks. The description of the friend matched the body," said an official from Dombivli GRP. The accused had filed an FIR on Tuesday.

GRP question complainant

Mukesh Dhage, inspector, in charge of Dombivli GRP said, "We called the complainant Bablu Prasad Chauhan, 35, for inquiry. He claimed he and his friend Bechal Prasad Chauhan, 40, were going in an auto to board a train to Kalyan, but when they reached 90 feet road between Kalyan and Thakurli, a few unknown persons stopped the auto and tried to rob them. He claimed he managed to run away from the spot while the robbers took Bechal to the railway tracks".

The GRP found some discrepancies in the statement of Chauhan and kept questioning him about the chronology of the incident. He kept changing his statement. He told them he and Bechal had gotten off the rickshaw at 90 feet road. The GRP managed to find the auto driver and questioned him. He told them that Chauhan and Bechal had a fight during the journey and got off at 90 feet road.

"Based on this information we again probed Chauhan and he broke down and confessed to the crime. We arrested him under IPC Sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence). He was produced in court which remanded him in police custody till October 12," said a GRP officer.

‘Petty reasons behind murder'

The accused Chauhan works as a carpenter while deceased Bechal was a painter. They stayed together at Dombivli East. According to primary investigation, petty reasons led to a violent scuffle in the auto and the murder. "Chauhan and Bechal got down from the auto and during the fight, Chauhan took a sharp blade he used for carpentry work and slashed Bechal's throat with it. He then dragged Bechal to the tracks nearby and left him to die," said a GRP officer.