NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police has arrested a vagabond in connection with the bludgeoning to death of a man with an iron rod in the Narela Industrial Area earlier this month, an officer said on Sunday.
On July 12, the body of an unidentified man with head injuries was found near the railway land in Bhorgarh village in Narela.
The man was later identified as Ballu, 23, of Uttar Pradesh.
There was a little in the way of a lead with no eyewitnesses or CCTV cameras near the crime scene.
“However, a team scanned CCTV footage from nearby areas and informants were activated to gather leads,” a police officer said.
The breakthrough came on July 26 with the arrest of Sadaguru alias Badka Murmu, 50, a native of Jharkhand, who confessed to the crime.
Sadaguru said he killed Ballu with an iron rod in a fit during an argument.
Police said the accused had a history of using multiple names and was previously convicted in a kidnapping case.
“He claimed to be a divine messenger, tasked with cleansing the earth, surviving by scavenging and burying
leftover food,” said the officer.
Sadaguru had come to Delhi in 1986, and initially worked as an electrician in Bhorgarh. He has been involved in at least three previous criminal cases – a kidnapping each in 2009 and 2016, and one theft case in 2003 —, police said.