Five people were on Sunday arrested for beating a 48-year-old labourer to death for alleged theft from a mango orchard, police said. The arrested accused, including the lease owner of the orchard, had dumped the body in a canal, police said. The deceased, identified as Suresh Verma, was a resident of Akota village in Bardoli taluka of Surat district and a native of Uttar Pradesh's Sultanpur district. Suresh and another labourer, Ajay Banwasi, who were working as labourers in the orchard, were tied up to a tree and beaten up by accused Ashfak Rayan on others on May 21. Ashfak, who had taken on lease a mango orchard of Rakesh Patel of Bardoli, accused Suresh and Ajay for stealing mangoes and selling them to villagers. On May 21 night, Ajay found Suresh unconscious after being beaten up, and fled the spot. On May 21 evening, Suresh's wife Bhanumati called up Ashfak to enquire about her husband who was not responding to her calls. Ashfak told her that her husband had stolen mangoes worth Rs 50,000 and sold them to villagers. Ashfaq also said that if she sent her son Suraj along with Rs 50,000, then only he would let her husband go. Ashfaq also allegedly let Bhanumati hear her husband's voice over phone to prove her husband was in his custody. Bhanumati then called up her son Suraj, who stays is Surat as well and works in another mango farm, to inform him about his father, said sources in Bardoli police. Police sources further said that Suraj reached Akota village and talked to labourers of Ashfak's farm and learnt that his father and another labourer were accused of stealing and selling off mangoes to the villagers. He was told that Suresh had died after being beaten up, while another labourer (Ajay) fled. The labourers further told Suraj that on May 21 night, Ashfak and four others had taken Suresh's body in a car and to disposed it. When Suraj called Ashfak to enquire about his father, he was told that he had left for Sultanpur. Suraj then approached Bardoli rural police and lodged a missing complaint on May 25. The police started a probe, during which they found that a body of an unknown person was discovered by Kamrej police from a canal in Shampura village on May 25. Bardoli rural police, accompanied by Suraj, reached Kamrej police station to enquire about the body. Suraj was shown photographs of the body, after which he identified it to be of his father. They were also told that the body had been cremated by Kamrej police. Suresh subsequently lodged a complaint against Ashfak and four others at Bardol police station on May 31. Police booked Ashfak, Vinod Agrawal, Mohammed Umar Munihar, Dashrath Maurya, and Yakub Abdul Gaffar — all natives of UP's Sultanpur — under BNS sections 103(1) (murder), 238(a) (causing the disappearance of evidence of an offence or giving false information to protect the offender), 308(2)(extortion), 115(2) (Voluntarily causing hurt), 127(2) (wrongful confinement), 189(2) (unlawful assembly), 191(2) (rioting). Talking to The Indian Express, Bardoli rural police inspector P N Jadeja said, “We arrested all the accused on Sunday. We will produce them before Bardoli court and seek police remand. They have confessed to have beaten Suresh Verma, who was accused of stealing mangoes. One more victim, Ajay Banwasi, is still missing and we are trying to locate him.”
