Torso in cemetery, head 3 km away: Surat worker kills friend over Rs 30,000

A powerloom labourer killed his friend and colleague in Surat, disposed of his body in a cemetery, and severed his head, throwing it into bushes three kilometres away a day later, the police said. The police, who identified the victim as Sanjit, alias Sanjay Kholsa, 36, arrested his friend Suchitkumar Bal, 54, for the murder.

Both were residents of Rail Rahat Colony at Katargam and came from Cuttack, Odisha, to work in a powerloom factory on Ved Road in Surat, according to the police. The police said the murder, which took place on November 1, followed a dispute over Rs 30,000 that Sanjit had borrowed from Suchitkumar.

They had quarrelled over the amount before that as well, Katargam police Inspector L R Gohil said. Gohil said, “On Sunday evening, Suchit called Sanjit to his house for some work, and later hit him on the head with a blunt object, killing him in the house in the presence of his wife.

“Late at night, Suchit carried the body in a gunny bag and disposed of it in the bushes in the Christian burial ground, around 50 meters from his house and returned home. On Monday night, he again went to the burial ground, severed the head from the body, and placed it in a plastic bag.

He took the head on a bike, and while passing on Alkapuri Bridge, dropped the head into the bushes near the railway tracks and returned home.” Sources said a local saw Suchit carrying a gunny bag containing Sanjit’s body on Sunday night.

The local later informed the police about having found a body in the cemetery at Lalita Chowkdi. The police reached the cemetery and discovered a man’s torso and started looking for his head. CCTV videos from outside the cemetery led the police to Suchit at Rail Rahat Colony in Katargam on Tuesday night.

The police said Suchit confessed to killing Sanjit. On further questioning, he took the police to the bushes near the railway tracks at Alkapuri Society, on Ashwani Kumar Road, where he had dumped his friend’s head. Gohit said Sanjit’s family members were on their way to Surat from Odisha after being informed by the police.