New Delhi: Money turned friends into foe. Three youths have been arrested for killing and chopping the body of a tattoo artist in East Delhi’s Mayur Vihar. The police said that they were close friends and one of them was having monetary issues with the deceased, who was unable to return the money that he had borrowed.

According to the police, the accused have been identified as Prashant Mishra (25), Ankit Sharma (19), and Inderjeet (27), who had chopped deceased Babloo’s head with a coconut chopper.

“On Sunday afternoon, we got a police control room call at around 1.30 pm from a caller, Sonu, who is the deceased’s brother. He informed us about Babloo’s headless body lying in a vacant plot belonging to the Delhi Jal Board. The head of the deceased was also recovered from the same plot,” said DCP (East) Pankaj Singh.

The police said that during initial investigation, Sonu told the police about how Babloo left home on December 10 and did not return. However, he did not suspect any foul play since his brother often stayed out for several days without informing anyone.

“We had detained his close friends for investigation. It came to light that Mishra, Sharma, and Inderjeet were last seen with him on December 10. Subsequently, they were interrogated. Initially, the trio said that they met him on December 10 but later Babloo left without telling them,” said Mr Singh.

“During sustained interrogation, the three broke down and confessed to have committed the crime. They disclosed that Mishra had lent Babloo some money, which he refused to repay. The other two also had a fallout with Babloo over money as they were all addicts,” he said.

The police said that the three had hatched a plan to eliminate him. They lured him to have drinks with them on the pretext of a party at a vacant plot.

“They revealed that Mishra had arranged two coconut choppers as per their plan. They got Babloo drunk and then chopped his head and left the body there,” said DCP Singh.

The police said it has recovered the two coconut choppers and the blood stained clothes.