The victim's family had approached Superintendent of Police Ranjan Kumar Sharma and lodged a complaint alleging that their kin was abducted and murdered.
According to inspector Nilesh Brahmane of Crime Branch, Alesh Manohar Borkhade went missing on December 3 following which his family lodged a missing person complaint at the Wadgaon Road police station, which ignored the complaint for over a month.
"We received a tip-off and interrogated Darda Engineering College's watchman Ramnaresh Patel (35). Initially, he refused to confess the crime," Brahmane said.
On December 4, the body of an unidentified man was found in Shivni village of neighbouring Madhya Pradesh. Police there tried to identify the body, but failed as nobody turned up to claim it.
"Later, Ramnaresh confessed kidnapping Alesh on December 3 and murdering him by burning him alive in Yavatmal itself. His body was transported to Madhya Pradesh by car and disposed off at an isolated place in Shivni," Brahmane said.
A case has been registered against the watchman under Sec 302 (murder) of IPC.