BENGALURU: When Saravana J, a resident of Vijinapura in Ramamurthy Nagar, lit up a cigarette on the terrace of his friend’s house in Horamavu on Monday, little did he know that he would be fighting for his life just moments later.
The 38-year-old victim was meeting his friend Shankar after four months at his house on ninth cross, Banjara layout. According to his complaint with the police, he was on the terrace, smoking and talking on the phone and there were two women on the terrace of the opposite house.
On seeing him moving about, the women called out to someone and within minutes, a man appeared, yelling at Saravana to stop smoking and to smoke inside the house, Saravana said. “I immediately put of the cigarette and told the man I will not smoke. Since he was shouting I asked him to stop shouting and carry on with his work. The neighbour asked me to come down. I thought he was calling me to talk, but when I got down he was already carrying tiles and started hitting me,” he said.
Shankar tried to intervene but was pinned by the two women who asked the man to continue hitting Saravana. “Residents gathered around and stopped him. We went to the police station immediately to file a complaint but they said that I should first get treatment and return,” Saravana said. Saravana then went to a hospital in KR Puram and got himself treated and filed a complaint the next day.
According to an investigating officer, the attacker and his family members were on the run after the incident. “We are making efforts to search for them. None of the residents know their details, so we have got in touch with the house owner. A case of assault causing grievous injuries has been taken against the attacker,” a police officer said.
Local residents told police that the man and his family members would often fight with many people. The attacker always scolded the neighbours claiming that they were staring at his wife and making gestures at her. He had also fought with another resident over a parking issue in the past.