A youth hurled a bottle of petrol on a tea vendor after he refused to pay mamool at Sultanpet in Villianur near here on Sunday night.
The bottle fell on the gas stove and exploded causing burn injuries to the tea vendor identified as Fathin (38) of Pudhu Street in Villianur.
Police sources said the accused identified as Ganesh of Arumathapuram had gone to the tea stall of Fathin and demanded ‘mamool’ a sum of Rs.500 from him.
When he refused to pay, Ganesh came a little later and hurled a bottle of petrol on him.
Locals and shopkeepers at Pudhu Street managed to get hold of Ganesh on hearing injured Fathin’s screams .
They thrashed him before handing him over to the police. Fathin has been admitted to the Puducherry government general hospital.
However, police later claimed that the incident was not over mamool and it was the fallout of an altercation between Fathin and Ganesh.
A case has been registered. It may be recalled that miscreants had torched the portion of a bakery on Kamarajar Salai last month after the shopkeeper allegedly refused to pay mamool.
