Indian arrested for killing compatriot

The incident took place on Friday afternoon and the accused was taken into custody by the police late in the evening on Saturday from the same residential  compound where he had gone into hiding.

Both the accused, Santhi Shyam Krishnan Nair (43) and the victim Mohamed Rizwan ul Haq (26), were employed by an air-conditioning servicing firm, according to sources.

Krishnan Nair, a native of Thrikannapuram in Thiruvananathpuram allegedly hit Haq, a native of Sindhri in Madhya Pradesh, using an iron rod at their accommodation when most of their fellow workers were away, being their weekly off. Though the victim was taken to a hospital, he was declared dead on being brought there, inquiries found.

Even though the police had launched an intensive search for the accused soon after the incident he could not be caught as he had vanished from the scene, fearing arrest. However, more than 24 hours after the crime, some co-workers found Nair hiding in the same compound where there are several hundreds of other residential units as well.

One of the co-workers said the accused and the victim had an altercation earlier in the day over some trivial issues but others intervened and dispersed them. However, the accused allegedly followed Haq in the afternoon when he went to get clothes dried on the roof of their villa compound and hit him using an iron rod.