Pune: Demanding payment of a costly cigarette one of the men had bought proofed tragic for the paan stall owner who was hacked to death by the culprits on Sunday on Baner road.
The victim identified as Santosh Kadam (32) was operating his paan stall near DMart over the past few years, TOI reports.
The crime was witnessed by Khadam’s relative Ramprabhu Mote (39) who approached the Police on the same night and lodged a complaint with the police.
The
four assailants, Somnath Chatur, Abhishekh Korade, Vishal Shinde and Prashant
Kamse, all aged 21 and hailing from Sangvi, were arrested on Monday.
Inspector Vaishali Galande of the Chatushrungi
police told TOI, “The four men are school dropouts and jobless. They do not
have any criminal record.”
According to the witness’s FIR, four men arrived
at Kadam’s ‘Swara Paan Shop’ around 2.30pm on Sunday.
“One of them bought a costly cigarette, but did not pay for it. When Kadam asked for the money, the four men took offence and started abusing and threatening him. They claimed they were ‘bhais’ (dons) and one of them slapped Kadam,” when Mote intervened and stopped the argument from further escalating.
The men left the stall threatening Kadam with
dire consequences and soon returned in the next few hours.
“Around 5.30pm, they returned to the stall on two motorcycles and again picked up a fight with Kadam. Soon, one of them pulled out a knife and stabbed Kadam in the stomach a couple of times,” the FIR stated.
Though the men attacked and escaped the crime scene, Mote had by then noted the registration number of one of the motorcycles and passed on the details to the Police.
The victim was rushed to a nearby private hospital but could not be saved and died on Sunday night.
The police was successful in nabbing the accused
with the help of the registration number.
The accused will be produced before the court on Tuesday.