Uttarakhand horror: Rape accused beaten to death with baseball bat by friends, body found buried in Haridwar forest

DEHRADUN: A man in Dehradun was allegedly beaten to death with a baseball bat by his friends, who later buried his body in the Chidiyapur forests in Haridwar, police said on Tuesday.

The case came to light when police, searching for the missing 28-year-old, Dingbar Dhiman, traced a taxi driver who had transported the body for disposal.


Acting on the driver’s information, authorities recovered Dhiman’s body from the forest. The taxi driver, Rajanandan Thakur, has been arrested for his role in concealing the crime, police added.

According to reports, Dhiman, accused of allegedly raping a minor, had gone to court with his father on February 9 for the hearing of the case against him. After receiving the next date from the court, he told his father to go home and said he would return later. However, he never returned home.

Dhiman's father filed a missing person report on February 11, and a search was launched. During investigation, it was discovered that Dhiman's friends, who often consumed drugs with him, had also been missing from their homes since his disappearance.

Police said that acting on suspicion, teams activated an informant network to gather information about Dhiman and his missing companions.

They also questioned families and nearby residents, learning that one of the missing companions, Hemant Semwal, had left his room in Racecourse C-Block on the night of February 9 in a taxi.

Using CCTV footage to track the vehicle, authorities detained and interrogated the driver, Rajanandan Thakur, a resident of New Patel Nagar.

During questioning, Thakur revealed that Semwal and his companions had placed a man’s body, wrapped in a blanket, in his taxi and buried it in the Chidiyapur forest.

Thakur also said that on the way, the accused told him that they had gotten into an argument with Dhiman while they were drinking and that they had accidentally hit him on the head with a baseball bat, resulting in his death, the police said.

Superintendent of police (City) Pramod Kumar said, "Separate teams have been formed and sent to possible locations to search for the accused involved in the incident. All the accused will be arrested soon."

(With agency inputs)