BENGALURU: A BPO employee who lost his way in KR Puram , east Bengaluru, and sought help from a group of men was murdered allegedly by them on September 14 midnight. The group allegedly mistook him to be from a rival gang.The half-burned body of Chethan H, 23, a resident of Hebbal and executive with a BPO in the same locality, was found by Hoskote police in Yelachamanahalli village. It took 10 days for police to identify the body as that of Chethan’s after one of his friends lodged a missing-person complaint.Police said Chethan left his office around 10pm on September 14 and went to drop his colleague Chandan to his house in KR Puram on his motorcycle.He lost his way while returning and entered JC Layout, where two groups had clashed only a couple of hours earlier over songs being played during a Ganesha immersion procession.Chethan found a few youths hanging around and asked for their help to get home. The gangsters, however, thought he was from the rival gang and stabbed him in his chest, stomach and face.“The gang took Chethan’s body to Yelachamanahalli and set it ablaze before fleeing the spot. A villager found the half-burned body next morning and informed police,” a police officer said.Hoskote police registered a case of murder and began s probe; they later identified the deceased as Chethan. Cops found the victim had gone missing after dropping his colleague Chandan, who recently lodged a missing-person complaint wiht KR Puram police.With no leads on who could have killed Chethan, police deployed the towerdumping technique and tracked all outgoing and incoming mobile phone calls in Yelachamanahalli area on the night of September 14.Cops soon discovered Chethan had been murdered by a gang led by Appu, whose associates Saivardhan BR and Sunil Kumar, both residents of KR Puram, have been arrested. The duo confessed to the crime and explained what had happened on the night of murder.“That night, there was a Ganesha procession in JC Layout. Two groups, one led by Appu and another by Harish alias Pakka, clashed over a trivial issue of changing a song. Harish and his gang left the spot, but Appu and his friends lingered till late night. Meanwhile, Chethan came and asked for directions towards his home in Hebbal. One of the gangsters noticed Chethan was carrying a smartphone and asked him why he was asking for the route instead of using the navigator on his phone. The gangsters suspected Harish could have sent him to harm them and murdered him,” a police officer said.Hoskote police transferred the case to KR Puram police station for further probe. KR Puram police said a gang of 14 murdered Chethan and some of the culprits have been arrested.