A drunken brawl resulted in the murder of a youth right in front of the Gandhi statue at Asilmetta junction late on Monday night. The accused was arrested by the police and presented before the media on Tuesday.
M. Uday Kumar (24) of Muralinagar, a private company employee, went to a bar at Meghalaya hotel along with four friends around 9 p.m. on Monday. When the bearer gave them a bill for Rs.2,230 they realised they had no money and began slipping out one after the other until Uday was left alone. The hotel staff caught him when he was trying to escape and some of them manhandled Uday.
Meanwhile, Sailesh Varma of Railway New Colony area, who was consuming liquor in another corner of the bar, rallied in support of the hotel staff and kicked Uday in his face. Uday rang up his friend Samuel and apprised him of the problem. Samuel and three other friends, who were at another bar, went to the hotel and arranged to pay the bill. Uday and his friends came out of the hotel and Sailesh also came out fully drunk. It was around 11:15 p.m. and the security guard of the hotel noticed that Sailesh was alone and drunk and therefore pleaded with Samuel and his friends to drop Sailesh at the nearby junction. Not knowing that Sailesh was the one who had kicked their friend, Samuel and his friends dropped him at the nearby Gandhi statue junction and went back to pick up their friend. Sailesh instead of going home stayed put on the pavement in front of the Gandhi statue.
Later, Uday, Samuel and their friends came back to the same junction and started discussing the issue. Uday noticed him and he and his friends picked up an altercation with him. Suddenly Uday picked up a big stone and hit Sailesh with it on his head, killing him on the spot. ACP (East) D.N. Mahesh said that an auto driver who was passing that way informed the Two Town SI Yerram Naidu, who was on night rounds rushed to the spot and informed me of the situation. The ACP said that the hotel employees and Uday’s friends were also interrogated. He said that Uday was also involved in petty cases under Kancharapalem Police Station limits.
