Caretaker, friend held for killing de-addiction centre inmate in Delhi

The caretaker of a de-addiction centre and his friend have been arrested for allegedly beating to death an inmate of the facility in southeast Delhi's Tughlakabad, the police said today.

The body of Amit Bidhuri (29), with multiple contusions on the lower part, was found by the police yesterday.

Bidhuri was brought to the de-addiction centre in an inebriated state and was made to sleep on the floor. On the night of June 11, caretaker Sumit Arora (30) and his two friends came to the facility in a inebriated state and abused, and beat up some of the inmates, the police said.

On seeing Bidhuri lying on the floor in a drunken stupor and passing stool, the accused got enraged and started beating him with a piece of wood, they said, adding the accused even used a hair trimmer to trim the victim's eyebrows and hair all the while beating him mercilessly.

One of the accused later fled after removing the Digital Video Recorder of the CCTV camera installed at the de-addiction centre, while Arora went off to sleep on a nearby bed, the police said.

When Arora woke up in the morning, he realised that the victim had died and ran away from the spot. He was arrested from Rampuri in Ghaziabad today, they said.

He led the police to his friend Sukhwinder who was nabbed from trans Yamuna area, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) Chinmoy Biswal said.

The third accused is absconding.

During interrogation, Arora revealed that earlier he was an inmate at the de-addiction centre. About one-and-a-half-months ago, he became a caretaker voluntarily so that he would have a place to stay and earn a living, the officer added.