Police arrest man for ordering a brand new iPhone online and then killing a delivery worker

A 30-year-old man was killed while delivering Apple's latest iPhone to two people who were supposed to pay for it in cash in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, police said.

Bharat Sahu, the delivery driver of online e-commerce portal Flipkart, was reported missing by his family two days after he did not return home.

Shashank Singh, a senior police officer, said that the accused, a resident of Chinhat in Lucknow, ordered an Apple iPhone worth around Rs 150,000 (₹1,350) from Flipkart, opting for the cash-on-delivery option.

The accused was identified by the local police as Gajanan. When Sahu arrived to deliver the phone to the accused's house, Gajanan and his accomplice strangled him, put his body in a sack and dumped it in a canal, police said.

“On September 23, messenger Bharat Sahu from Nishatganj went to deliver the phone at home where he was killed by Gajanan and his accomplice,” Mr. Singh told the media.

“After strangling Sahu, they put his body in a sack and dumped it in the Indira canal.” The search for Sahu’s body is still ongoing.

While checking Sahu's call records and trying to trace his location, police discovered Gajanan's phone number, which led them to his associate, identified by his first name, Akash, according to news agency Press Trust of India.

During interrogation, Akash confessed to the crime, Mr. Singh said, without revealing the motive for the murder.

Apple opened its first flagship stores in India in Mumbai and Delhi in 2023. The company's annual revenue in India rose 33 percent to nearly $8 billion, even though iPhones like the iPhone 15 cost nearly three times the country's average monthly wage.

India still accounts for just two percent of Apple's global sales and Android dominates over 80 percent of the market.

In early September, when the iPhone 16 was launched, loyal Indian Apple fans were already gathering outside stores, some camping out overnight.

Ujjwal Shah, an ardent Apple fan, was among the first in line in Mumbai and waited over 21 hours to be the store's first customer. “The energy in Mumbai for this phone is incredible,” Mr. Shah was quoted as saying by ANI.