A 28-year-old man was found murdered lying on the footpath in a south Calcutta neighbourhood off Sarat Bose Road early on Tuesday.

Morning walkers spotted the man lying in front of Sudesh Bhavan at 162A Sarat Bose Road with blood oozing out of the ears and injuries on one of his hands and informed police.

A police team took him to the hospital, where he was declared dead.

A few hours later, with the help of CCTV footage, a man was arrested from Joynagar in South 24-Parganas, in connection with the murder.

The victim was identified as Somnath Chakraborty, alias Bumba, a resident of Maheshtala, on the south-western fringes of the city.

The victim and his alleged killer were said to be beggars. The police suspect a dispute over who would wash cars in the area could be a reason behind the murder.

The police said they would question the accused to find his motive behind the crime.

The victim was found lying on the footpath in front of Sudesh Bhavan, a banquet hall on Sarat Bose Road, one of the busiest stretches of the area.

“We received information about the body around 8am. A team went to the spot and found there was an injury in his ear and that his right hand was badly fractured. Blood was oozing from his left ear. The person was identified as Somnath Chakraborty,” Kolkata Police joint commissioner (crime) Rupesh Kumar said.

Sources in the police said initially it was suspected that the man died in a road accident, but the nature of his injuries made the cops suspicious.

The nearby CCTV cameras were scanned, and soon a man suspected of having attacked the victim was spotted.

The accused was identified as Raju Naskar of Joynagar in South 24-Paraganas.

“It was learnt that he is also a beggar. A team was sent to Joynagar at his native place to nab him,” said an officer of the detective department of Kolkata Police.

The postmortem of the victim’s body was done later on Tuesday, and the injuries turned out to be homicidal.

The murder weapon is yet to be recovered.

Passenger injured in auto fare tiff

A 58-year-old woman who was caught in an argument with an autorickshaw driver over payment through a soiled note was injured when the driver allegedly pulled her bag and accelerated the auto in Salt Lake on Monday.

Based on the complaint of Bratati Mukherjee’s husband, police arrested Tapan Das on Tuesday.

Bratati is a resident of CG Block in Salt Lake’s Sector III.

“Around 11am on Monday, the auto driver started an argument with the woman for giving him a torn and dirty currency note. Suddenly, he pulled the handle of the woman’s bag with one hand and accelerated the auto with another hand. The woman fell down on her face and broke two teeth. She also received an injury on her forehead,” said an officer.

Based of the complaint, the cops launched an investigation and identified the driver

Das was arrested and produced before a court on Tuesday.