delhi

Updated: Apr 29, 2019 07:55 IST

A 50-year-old municipality sanitation worker died after being beaten with a broom for refusing to share a bench with a colleague during a drinking session in north Delhi’s Bharat Nagar on Friday evening, police said on Sunday.

The murder accused, Sudhir Bunty, 32, also a sanitation worker with the same civic body, remained unaware that he had killed his colleague until he was arrested from the nearby Ashok Vihar on Saturday, a senior police officer said. Police have seized a standard-issue broom belonging to the civic body as the weapon of offence.

Vijayanta Arya, deputy commissioner of police (north-west), said the alleged killer and his victim were drunk at the time of the incident. “It was a confrontation over the sharing of a bench. We have arrested Bunty and booked him for murder,” said the DCP.

Bunty and his victim, Sanjay Kumar, knew each other as colleagues, said another investigator. “They would often meet each other at work and during drinking sessions in Bharat Nagar,” said the officer.

The crime happened during one such session on Friday evening when Kumar was having drinks with his friends outside a tea stall. Kumar occupied a bench at the stall and his friends were seated around him when Bunty reached there.

“Bunty asked Kumar to move aside and share the bench with him. But Kumar took offence to the manner in which he was ordered and refused to oblige,” said the officer.

“An altercation followed during which Bunty picked up Kumar’s broom lying nearby and repeatedly struck him on the head. Kumar’s friends intervened and rushed him to a local hospital from where he was referred to Safdarjung Hospital,” said the officer. Police said eyewitnesses to the crime hadn’t anticipated Kumar’s death, a reason they only stopped the attack and did not stop Bunty from leaving the crime spot.

“It was Kumar who made the police call after the attack and he was also able to converse at the hospital. His friends did not think he would die,” said the officer.

Kumar died within hours of the assault. Police said he was suffering from several ailments, including jaundice. Once Kumar was declared dead at the hospital, a case of murder was registered at the Bharat Nagar police station and a search was launched for Bunty. “He was found in his neighbourhood in Ashok Vihar. He didn’t know that he had killed Kumar,” said the officer. Kumar lived in Nimri Colony in Ashok Vihar and is survived by a wife and a son, police said.