On January 16, when the city was celebrating Kanuma, two youngsters were murdered at separate places in the city, stabbed to death by broken liquor bottles.
Subsequent police investigations revealed that both the deaths were the fallout of drunken brawls.
This is not the first time that the city has witnessed murders committed under the influence of alcohol. On May 30 last year, a 40-year-old man named S. Prakash from P.M. Palem was allegedly murdered in a drunken brawl at Midhilapuri Colony in Madhurawada. Earlier that year, on April 9, an inebriated man attacked another over alleged financial disputes outside a wine shop in Akkayapalem. On April 17, a rowdy-sheeter named Suvvada Mahesh was also murdered in a drunken brawl.
Hotspots identified
The City Police said wine shops and some isolated surroundings near these establishments are hotspots vulnerable to such attacks. Some of these attacks are pre-planned, where gangs or rowdy-sheeters attack their rivals after washing them down with several rounds of liquor.
One such case was the murder of city-based boxer Santosh in October 2017, police said.
A senior police officer from the City Task Force (CTF) said, “Police teams regularly conduct patrolling at wine shops from 9.30 p.m. till the closure of the establishments in order to prevent such incidents. Wine shops under Kancharapalem PS limits, III Town, Dwaraka Nagar, Arilova, and Gajuwaka are vulnerable areas, as there have been instances of such drunken brawls in the past. But still, there are incidents where people have been murdered in a fit of rage.”
Continuous monitoring
According to officials from the Excise department, city and rural police, the departments have been asking owners of wine shops to install CCTV cameras on the premises of their outlets. However, very few wine shop owners have responded positively, with the majority of them ignoring the request. Police say having a CCTV camera on the premises of the wine shops would not only help in crime detection, but would also instil a fear of the law among criminals and rowdy-sheeters, thus deterring crime.
“Our teams have been continuously monitoring the activities of rowdy-sheeters and have prevented some attacks last year. However, we cannot stop murders that are committed in a fit of rage after alcohol consumption. Intensified patrolling near wine shops will be a solution towards this,” said a police officer from the Crime department.
