Police are on the lookout for a labourer from Barmer in Rajasthan after he allegedly murdered another worker who is his roommate and dumped his body in the underground water tank of a rented home in an industrial cluster in Anjar taluka of Kutch.

Body of the victim, a 23-year-old native of Patan district in Gujarat, was identified on the basis of a rakhi tied to him by a woman on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan.

According to an FIR registered at Anjar police station, Ajitsinh Malek (23), a resident of Ambaji Residency in Varsamedi, a village in Anjar taluka where a number of factories are located, stopped answering his family members’ calls from August 13.

On August 15, after his elder brother Verubha, a farmer from Sipur village in Shankeshwar taluka of Patan district, contacted Ajitsinh’s friend Paji in Anjar, Ajitsinh’s roommate, Jogaram alias Aryan Goud, a native of Barmer, called Verubha.

“He (Goud) told me that Ajitsinh has gone on a vacation for 15 to 20 days…,” the FIR quotes the 26-year-old elder brother as saying.

After the farmer brother received no communication either from his younger brother or from Goud, a labourer from Rajasthan, Verubha along with his cousin brother Surubha went to the house in Varsamedi that Ajitsinh had rented.However, the duo found the house locked from outside.

Surubha called Goud who asked the cousins to meet him near Gandhidham railway station but later his phone was switched off, according to the FIR.

In the meantime, a woman from Ambaji Residency whom Ajit knew told Verubha and Surubha that Goud had come to her home, demanding Ajitsinh’s shoes as he wanted to go out. The woman’s daughter tied rakhi to Ajitsinh on Raksha Bandhan on August 11.

Verubha and Surubha again went to Ajit’s rented accommodation on August 17 and broke open the lock of the house. They found Ajitsinh’s bedding and wallet with his Aadhaar card. The wallet also had the Aadhaar card of one Madhukumari Sharma, who used to live in the same society till some time ago.

On August 19, Verubha got a call from Madhukumari Sharma, asking him to check the water tanks in Ajitsinh’s residence. The cousins checked the underground water tank and found a decomposed body.

Police said the woman whom Ajitsinh used to treat as sister identified the body as Ajitsinh on the basis of a rakhi she tied to him.

Later that night, Verubha filed a complaint with Anjar police station, on the basis of which a case of murder was filed against Goud who is absconding.

“We are looking for him,” Anjar police inspector Shailendrasinh Sisodiya told The Indian Express on Sunday, adding the motive of the murder was being investigated.

“We are also ascertaining if Sharma had any role to play in the crime,” Sisodiya added. Police said a metal wire and a shawl were found wrapped around Ajitsinh’s body, suggesting he was strangled.

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