Khatima: 20-year-old from Shiv Colony allegedly strangled and his body hidden in a gutter, police arrest his friend; dispute over a drug injection, police say

Police have recovered the body of a 20-year-old who had been missing from Khatima's Shiv Colony (Ward 17) since the night of November 7, and have arrested an old friend of his on a charge of murder. According to Amar Ujala, Dainik Jagran and Dainik Bhaskar, SSP Ajay Ganapati said the search revealed that this friend had handed the young man's mobile phone to his family, saying he had found it lying somewhere; he was then questioned. According to the police, the accused said both were drug addicts, and on the night of November 7, while preparing an injection of smack in an empty ground behind the colony, they quarrelled after one injection fell, after which he strangled the young man with the drawstring of his lowers and hid the body in a gutter on a plot about 15-20 metres away. The accused is also alleged to have taken about Rs 2,300 and the mobile phone from the young man; according to the police, he spent Rs 1,700 of it on firecrackers. The body, the drawstring and Rs 600 were recovered at his pointing out. The missing-person case has been changed to one of murder and destroying evidence, and a post-mortem is being conducted.