Man kills friend over obscene remarks, unpaid loan in Bijnor; held

Bijnor: A 30-year-old man allegedly killed his friend on an unfinished stretch of highway near Harchandpur village in Bijnor for passing obscene comments about his wife. The accused was also under pressure to repay a loan taken last year from his friend, police said on Friday.Surendra Kumar (27), a factory worker in Dehradun, was found lying on the Haridwar–Kashipur national highway near Jalalabad bypass on Dec 21. SP (City) Krishna Gopal Singh said the body bore head injuries and was sent to district hospital for autopsy.Following a complaint by the victim's brother Satyapal Singh, a case was registered under BNS Section 103(1) (murder) at Nangal police station.The case was cracked on Friday with the arrest of the deceased's friend, Sandeep Kumar, a resident of Dehradun. A blood-stained jacket belonging to the accused was recovered, along with a bus ticket dated Dec 21 for travel from Haridwar to Mandawali. A brick allegedly used to bludgeon Surendra to death was also recovered.Police said Sandeep worked as a sweeper at Dehradun secretariat through an outsourcing agency and had borrowed Rs 70,000–80,000 from Surendra. The pressure to repay the money, coupled with lewd remarks made by the victim about his wife, caused him severe mental distress."Surendra had a criminal background and was out on bail in a murder case," police said. During interrogation, the accused told police that he lured Surendra on Dec 21 on the pretext of travelling to Najibabad. The two met in Mandawali, went to an under-construction stretch of the highway and had drinks. When Surendra became drunk, Sandeep allegedly struck him on the head multiple times with a brick, killing him on the spot.Sandeep was in a hurry to flee the spot, and abandoned his blood-stained jacket when he saw police nearby. He was arrested when he later returned to the area in search of his jacket, police said.