28-year-old killed for 'staring' at a man; three arrested

Mumbai, Oct 24: A 28-year-old man was killed allegedly by three persons following a fight over staring at one of them in Mumbai, a police official said on Monday. The deceased, Ronit Bhalekar, who worked at a call centre, was in an inebriated state and accompanied by a friend at the time of the incident which took place in the early hours of Sunday near a restaurant in Matunga area. The three accused were later arrested, he said.

Bhalekar had a scuffle with the three accused over staring at one of them. The accused then allegedly hit him on his head with a belt, punched him repeatedly, kicked him in the chest and stomach, hurled abuses and pushed him to the ground twice, the official said.

The man collapsed on the spot. He was rushed to a civic-run hospital where he was declared dead before admission, the official said. The Shahu Nagar police later arrested the three accused and registered a case against them under Indian Penal Code Sections 302 (murder), 323, 324 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention), the official said.

The accused were on Sunday produced in a local court which remanded them in police custody for three days, he added.