According to reports, victim Suresh Sahoo was a resident of Dharmayug Society in Udhna and Kirodhkar Malik his roommate.

On Tuesday, after he returned from office, an argument broke out between the two after which Malik hit him repeatedly with a wooden stick, injuring him badly. He later fled the spot.

The police said that Sahoo’s younger brother, who was staying in the same room, returned from his nightshift duty in a textile factory at Pandesara on Wednesday morning and found his brother lying in a pool of blood. He immediately called some neighbours and informed the police.

The body was sent to the New Civil Hospital for a postmortem by the police.

Primary investigation revealed that Malik disliked Sahoo’s habits and both used to quarrel over it often. The former had even warned him not to come to the room in an inebriated state.

The police suspect that there might have been a similar fight on Tuesday night when Malik might have killed Sahoo in a fit of anger.

Inspector A K Qureshi said, “We are searching for the accused and suspect that he might have gone back to his home in Orissa. We will take help of the Orissa Police to arrest him.”