Man bludgeoned to death in west Delhi, relative held

A 45-year-old man was allegedly bludgeoned to death by his relative in west Delhi's Punjabi Bagh area over suspicion of having an illicit relationship with the accused's wife, police said on Wednesday.

The deceased has been identified as Shakeel Ahmed, a resident of Mehrauli, they said.

According to police, they received information that a labourer had died due to electrocution but the postmortem examination revealed that he died of head injuries.

Police had found Ahmed lying on the ground at a building where medical equipment are repaired. He was rushed to a hospital where doctors declared him brought dead.

Ahmed worked as a mechanic in the company for nine months. His relative Naushad Aalam, 31, also works there, police said.

Aalam told police he found Ahmed lying on the floor.

He said Ahmed had come in contact with a live wire and hit iron boxes and died.

Aalam then called his employer Sumit Arora, who called police, a senior police officer said.

But the postmortem report revealed Ahmed died due to head injuries and not of electrocution, police said.

"Police had doubts. Aalam was questioned and he accepted he killed Ahmed, suspecting him of having an illicit relationship with his wife," said Monika Bhardwaj, deputy commissioner of police (west).

Around 25 days ago, Aalam had downloaded a voice-recording application on his wife's phone, from which he came to know that Ahmed and his wife were frequently meeting in his absence.

He confronted Ahmed but he refused to having any illicit relationship with his wife.

When Aalam and Ahmed were in the office on Tuesday night, the accused hit Ahmed's head with a hammer and he died. Thereafter, he kicked Ahmed several times, police said.

Aalam then washed the hammer and rolled a tape around it and created a false story, police said, adding that Ahmed was the maternal uncle of Aalam's wife.