Lucknow: A 22-year-old labourer from Kushinagar was allegedly murdered by his friend in Karnataka over Rs 63,000 lying in his bank account. The accused, who had been called to Karnataka by the victim to help him secure a job as a JCB operator, allegedly killed him, dumped his body in bushes near their room and transferred the money through UPI to an acquaintance’s account before fleeing to his native village in Kushinagar.The accused, identified as 27-year-old Sarwan Sarhani, was arrested by Karnataka Police from his native village in Kushinagar on Friday and taken to Karnataka for further investigation.The victim, Manish Sharma, was the youngest of three sons of Seemapati Sharma, a resident of Bankar Tola in Khothi village under the Ramkola police station area. Manish travelled to Karnataka in June to find work and was working as a labourer in the Bajpe area of Mangaluru district. When a need for a JCB operator arose at his company, he called his friend Sarwan, from his village, to Karnataka to help him secure a job.The two began living together. However, Sarwan could not get the JCB operator’s job as his driving licence had not been renewed. He subsequently started doing odd jobs while staying with Manish.According to police, Sarwan came to know that Manish had Rs 63,720 in his bank account. He allegedly murdered Manish on Oct 27 and dumped his body in bushes a short distance from their room during the night.After the murder, the accused allegedly transferred Rs 63,720 from Manish’s bank account through UPI to the account of an acquaintance. He subsequently left Karnataka by bus and reached his native village on the evening of Oct 30.Meanwhile, Manish’s family grew suspicious when they failed to reach him on the phone. On being questioned, Sarwan allegedly gave evasive replies.Manish’s father then alerted his elder son, Sonu, who was also working in Karnataka. Sonu rushed to Bajpe and made inquiries among locals, but learnt that Manish had not been seen since October 27. He subsequently approached the local police.During the investigation, Karnataka Police traced the money transferred from Manish’s account to Rajan Sharma, a resident of a neighbouring village near Khothi in Kushinagar. During questioning, Rajan told investigators that he had subsequently transferred the amount to Sarwan.Following this lead, Karnataka Police reached Khothi village and arrested Sarwan from his residence.Ramkola SHO Swatantra Kumar Singh confirmed that his police station had coordinated with Karnataka Police and obtained details of the case.
