Coimbatore: The Aliyar police on Thursday evening arrested a 25-year-old man for murdering a pavement dweller by dropping a big boulder on his head near Aliyar dam park in the early hours of the day.
An investigation officer identified the arrested person as Jahir, 25, of Anaimalai. "A pavement dweller, he was in the habit of sleeping on a platform in front of Aliyar dam park. His place was occupied by another pavement dweller, G Devaraj, 40, of Ponnamaravathi in Pudukkottai district, on Wednesday night. Jahir asked Devaraj to leave the place immediately. But Devaraj did not respond, as he had dozed off under the influence of alcohol."
In the early hours of Thursday, the officer said, Jahir dropped a big boulder on the head of Devaraj, murdering him on the spot. "Later, he dragged Devaraj's body to a nearby garbage dumping place, covered the same with waste and managed to escape from the area."
Local residents came across the body, which was partially buried in a heap of garbage, in the morning and alerted the Aliyar police. The body was subsequently sent to the ESI medical college hospital at Varadharajapuram near Singanallur for postmortem.
The officer said Devaraj, who was addicted to alcohol, was making a living by collecting and selling the plastic materials and bottles from a park near the dam.
Preliminary inquiry revealed that Jahir had a dispute with Devaraj and bludgeoned him to death. "We arrested him in the evening and found that he was mentally unstable. We have admitted him to hospital for a medical examination to assess his mental state," the officer said.