The Vanrai Police have arrested two persons for allegedly killing a homeless scrap collector following a dispute over sharing money earned from selling scrap. One of the accused is a resident of Haryana.
Both the accused were produced before a court, which remanded them to four days of police custody for further investigation.
According to information from Vanrai Police, an unidentified man was found lying unconscious near Hanuman Tekri in Goregaon. He was immediately taken to the Trauma Care Hospital in Jogeshwari East for treatment, where doctors declared him dead on arrival.
Initially, the police registered a case of Accidental Death Report (ADR). However, after noticing severe head injuries on the victim, police grew suspicious. As no identification documents were found with the deceased, his identity remained unknown for some time.
To identify the victim, the police formed two teams and showed photographs of the deceased to around 50 to 70 scrap collectors in the Goregaon–Dahisar area. Some of them identified the man as Azhar, who used to collect scrap along with two other men — Suresh alias Kalia and Salim alias Nepali. Both had been missing since the incident.
The post-mortem report from the hospital confirmed that the victim died due to injuries sustained in an assault. Following this, the police registered a case of murder against unknown persons.
During the investigation, police found that the murder took place after a dispute over sharing money earned from selling scrap. The accused allegedly hit Azhar on the head with a stone, leading to his death.
Police later detained Suresh alias Kalia from Haryana. During interrogation, he allegedly confessed that he and his associate Salim alias Nepali had committed the murder together.
Based on the confession, the second accused, Salim alias Nepali, was arrested from the Pathanwadi area of Malad.