Bengaluru: The police have arrested two soldiers serving with the Army Service Corps (ASC) for murdering and later burning the body of their colleague on the ASC campus at Ashok Nagar.

The body of the victim, Pankaj Kumar, 24, was discovered on March 24, a day after he was killed. An inquiry initiated by the Army found soldiers Murali Krishna, 32, and Dhanraj, 25, to be the key suspects.

According to the police, Krishna had faced an inquiry six months ago, after he was accused of stealing Kumar’s identity card. “The issue turned out to be serious. His superiors took cognisance of it and an inquiry was conducted. Krishna was on the verge of being dismissed from service. He continued to have a grouse against Kumar for this reason,” a senior police officer said. .

Late in the evening on March 23, Kumar and Krishna allegedly got into a heated argument over the issue. At around 10.30 p.m. that night, Krishna allegedly plotted to murder Kumar, and shared his plans with his colleague Dhanraj. Krishna stabbed Kumar and choked him to death.