An alleged psychopath, who claimed to be acting on “orders of a ghost”, battered a rickshaw puller to death in East Delhi’s Kalyanpuri early on Thursday morning.

The killer, identified as 25-year-old Vinod, has been arrested and sent to Tihar Jail.

Vinod told the police that two months ago, he had killed a person in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh. The police is trying to ascertain the veracity of his claim. It also suspects that Vinod could be a psychopath as “he often dreams that a paranormal entity asks him to kill people.”

“The incident happened at around 4 am when a rickshaw puller was sleeping in his rickshaw on the side of the road and the accused came armed with a wooden stick and started beating him unprovoked,” said a police officer.

The rickshaw puller died on the spot, the police said. His body has been sent to Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital for a post-mortem.

During his interrogation, Vinod said he is from Uttarakhand and had come to Delhi 6 months ago.

On being asked about the reason of murdering the rickshaw puller who he apparently didn’t even know, Vinod revealed that he was guided by a ghost who ordered him to kill him.

“He has been deviating from his statements and seems to be mentally disturbed,” said a police officer.