A rickshaw puller was bludgeoned to death by his friend over sleeping space at an accommodation at a religious place, about 500 metres from the Uttar Pradesh Governor House here in Lucknow.

The police came to know about the incident only after some rickshaw pullers alerted them.

Several homeless rickshaw pullers get shelter at the accommodation at the religious place every night.

The victim, Imamul Khan, 60, had a verbal spat with one Shamsher a.k.a Chhote Lal Kori for sleeping at a place which was cosier in view of biting cold.

Later, Shamsher attacked Imamul and left him bleeding profusely.

Another rickshaw puller, Santosh Kumar Chauhan, spotted Imamul in a pool of blood and he alerted the staff of the religious place who, in turn, informed the police.

"Imamul was taken to a government hospital and was pronounced dead," the Hazratganj police said.

The police registered a case on the complaint of Santosh who told police that he had seen Imamul and Shamsher quarrelling the previous night.

"I went to sleep ignoring their fight and later found Imamul had his head smashed with some heavy object and blood oozing out.

Police swung into action after the incident and a team started to hunt for Shamsher and arrested him on the way to Lucknow's Charbagh railway station.

DCP, Central Zone, Aparna Rajat Kaushik said that Shamsher confessed to his crime and said that he had smashed him with a brick.

(KB/ANS)