A 32-year-old grocery shop owner has been arrested from Mulihithlu here on charges of murdering his labourer by setting him on fire and later passing it off as an electrocution, police said.

Mangaluru South police arrested the accused, Tausif Hussain, on Saturday based on evidence after questioning local residents in the vicinity, city police commissioner Kuldeep Kumar R Jain said.

The man allegedly set Gajnana, the labourer, on fire and then tried to misrepresent it as an electrocution.

Police said the accused allegedly killed Gajnana over a minor dispute by setting him on fire. To cover up the crime, he falsely informed the people in the area that Gajnana had been electrocuted and was taken to a hospital for treatment, where the doctors pronounced him dead.

After preliminary investigation, police confirmed the incident to be a murder and the accused was arrested.

A case has been registered and further investigation is on, police said.

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