Maddur: A 26-year-old youth was allegedly murdered with lethal weapons by a group of youths over old rivalry at Gejjalagere village near Maddur on Monday night. Another youth, who was with him has suffered serious injuries following a brutal assault and is undergoing treatment at the District Hospital.

The deceased youth is Hemanth Kumar, son of Srikanta of Gejjalagere and owner of a milk transporting vehicle. 

On May 9 (Sunday), a cricket match was held at the village during which a fight broke out between two groups supporting the two teams. When a wordy duel ensued between the two groups, Hemanth Kumar intervened to stop the fight and one Indukumar had allegedly issued a threat of chopping Hemanth Kumar’s hands and legs.

It is learnt that Hemanth Kumar and Indukumar had a tiff over milk transporting vehicle tender. 

Hemanth, on Monday night, after parking the vehicle at the Milk Federation premises, was on his way to the village on his bike with Sunil Kumar riding pillion at about 8.30 pm, when Indukumar along with five others, who were waiting in a car, rammed into the bike near a tea stall on Mysuru-Bengaluru Highway resulting in Hemanth and Sunil falling from the bike. 

The car occupants, including Indukumar, who alighted from the car holding machetes, brutally assaulted Hemanth and Sunil besides chopping off Hemanth’s hand and dropping concrete blocks on Hemanth’s head resulting in Hemanth breathing is last on the spot.

Due to ramming the car to the bike, one of the wheels of the car got punctured and the group of youths somehow drove the car to some distance and abandoned it near an agricultural field at Mallaiah Nagar and fled from the spot. The Police have seized the car.

Based on the complaint from Hemanth’s father Srikanta, the Police have registered a case against Indukumar, Putta alias Prasad and others, who have gone absconding.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Dr. M. Ashwini, DySP Lakshminarayana Prasad, Circle Inspector Bharat Gowda, Sub-Inspector Naveen Gowda and others visited the spot. The body of Hemanth was shifted to Mandya District Hospital, where post-mortem was conducted and the body was handed over to the family members yesterday afternoon.