KASARGOD: A drunken brawl between two close friends left one of them dead and the other seriously injured at Parappa in Karinthalam panchayat.
Vellarikkundu police identified the deceased as 'Keeri' Ravi (49) of Thodanchal. His friend Kannan (49) of Kulipara Karat is undergoing treatment at Kannur Medical College at Pariyaram, said Vellarikkundu station house officer and inspector Premsadan.
Ravi had a cut two inches long and half an inch wide on the right side of his chest, he said. The cut, which is deep too, is the possible cause of death, said the inspector was the inquest.
Kannan had a similar wound on his chest.
Close family
Premsadan said Ravi and Kannan were childhood friends and went to school together.
Ravi's wife Susheela and Kannan's wife Kaushalya also get along well. Sunday night, all the four were drinking at Ravi's house, said the officer.
Later, they came to Kannan's house -- 250 metres away -- to drink some more wash, the finished product of fermentation, he said. When the two women went inside the kitchen, the men sat on the verandah and got into an argument and allegedly stabbed each other.
When the women came out of the kitchen, they saw Kannan lying in a pool of blood and the verandah, the officer said.
The police were called in, and the neighbours took Kannan to the District Hospital in Kanhangad. No one looked for Ravi. "Ravi has a shed on his property where he sometimes sleeps at night. The neighbours assumed he might have gone there. The police officers also left the spot in the night," the inspector said.
It was raining heavily Sunday night, and neighbours reportedly told police they often heard loud arguments from the house and ignore them.
Monday morning, when Ravi's wife Susheela came to Kannan's house to take her slippers she saw Ravi lying dead 15 metres from the house. "If he was spotted yesterday, his life could have been saved. He must have bled to death," said the officer.
Vellarikkundu police have registered a case of murder after the inquest.
District police chief Shilpa Dyavaiah and Kanhangad DySP Vinod M P visited the crime scene.
Ravi's body has been sent for postmortem to the medical college at Pariyaram.