BENGALURU: Ashoknagar police on Monday arrested seven men for killing a civil contractor after he objected to the men smoking when a procession of a local deity was passing by. The incident took place at B Street in Shanthinagar on Saturday night.
The arrested persons are Venkatesh, Vijay alias Kariya Vijay, Gerald Aroghyaraj, James Kumar, Vikram, Vijay alias Kotanguchi and Kiran. They are from LR Nagar and Vinayakanagar in Anepalya.
A senior police officer said that on Saturday night, Harish noticed that a group of men were smoking as the procession was passing by and he objected to it. A heated argument ensued. The men who were forced to leave the spot returned at 12.30 am and stabbed Harish.Harish’s family, who heard the commotion, came out to see what had happened and found him lying in a pool of blood. He was rushed to a private hospital where he was declared brought dead. Harish had bled out.
Harish’s wife Chaya Devi said: “My husband was standing in front of the house and a relative Jagadish was also present. Suddenly, a man came and attacked my husband. I pulled the assailant’s shirt and he fell on the ground. First, two more men joined in and later three more men came and stabbed my husband twice and fled.’’
“Some men tried to assault Harish on August 1. He had called the police to inform them about the incident. They thought Harish was informing the cops about their involvement in illegal activities,” the victim’s uncle, SN Balasubramanya, said.
Police had obtained CCTV footage to solve the case. A resident of the locality looked at the footage and identified one of the assailants, Venkatesh who studied BA in a private college. Venkatesh was picked up. On interrogation, he revealed the names of the other accused persons. Another suspect, a minor, is still at large. During the interrogation the assailants said that Harish and his relative slapped one of them for smoking and it had angered them enough to attack him.