Youth murdered by friends after drunken brawl

CHENNAI: In a drunken brawl, a 20-year-old youth was murdered by his friends near Kelambakkam, near Chennai. Ironically, the victim and the accused are good friends and the victim even had the names of the accused tattooed on his arm, police sources said.

The deceased was identified as Lakshmikanth of Padur near Kelambakkam. His mortal remains were found in an abandoned plot near the Government girls’ high school in Kelambakkam. Police recovered the body and moved it to a government hospital for autopsy.

Preliminary investigations revealed that Lakshmikanth is a school dropout and was unemployed. On finding the tattooed names on his friends, police went to Padur and conducted investigations with Pradeep, whose name was on the deceased’s hands.

Pradeep initially told the police that he was not in town for about a month and was away at work. He claimed to the police that he learnt about his friend’s death only after coming home recently. However, there were several inconsistencies in his version of the events after which police detained him for further inquiry after which he spilled the beans.

Police investigations revealed that the deceased went for a drinking session with Pradeep and another friend Satish. As the session was on Lakshmikanth allegedly spoke ill of Pradeep’s girlfriend in an inebriated state after which the two of them attacked the deceased with the beer bottles. They then knocked his head with a stone killing him on the spot.

The two of them were arrested and produced before a magistrate and remanded to judicial custody.