Meat-seller hacked to death for Rs 10

“The accused are regular customers at Shaikh’s shop and knew him well. However, they would always claim to be short of a small sum of money whenever they bought chicken from him, and would always pay him later. On Monday, the trio visited Shaikh’s shop at 8.30 pm and bought chicken worth Rs 100. However, they said that they only had Rs 90 between three of them, and told Shaikh that they would pay the balance later. Having allowed this enough times in past, Shaikh told them that he was fed up of their behaviour and demanded to be paid Rs 10 immediately,” said Senior Police Inspector Ajay Patankar, N M Joshi Marg police station.

Patankar added that Shaikh’s demand led to an argument during which the accused assaulted him. The sudden attack ended up injuring several of Shaikh’s vital organs, and he fell unconscious. The trio fled from the spot while another shopkeeper, who heard the commotion, rushed Shaikh to KEM Hospital in Parel where he was declared dead on Monday night.

After the hospital authorities intimated the police, a complaint of murder was registered and a manhunt was launched. The accused were held in Kamgar Nagar in Lower Parel at on Tuesday. The accused have been identified as Kundan Chaudhary (24), Sanjaykumar Bharti (20) and Damodar Sahu (20). The police said that the trio are vada pav vendors and stay in Prabhadevi. After being produced in court on Tuesday, they were all remanded to police custody.