Minor scuffle leads to murder

An argument over the shirking of duties regarding mandal work turned ugly in Tardeo when Jerry Fernandez, a 37-year-old man working as a driver was killed by Deepak Chavan...

An argument over the shirking of duties regarding mandal work turned ugly in Tardeo when Jerry Fernandez, a 37-year-old man working as a driver was killed by Deepak Chavan, a 22-year-old unemployed youth staying in the same locality in the early hours of Thursday morning at the Om Mitra Mandal Ganpati mandal in Tardeo.

Senior Police Inspector Vilas Joshi from the Tardeo police station said, 8220;According to Deepak, both the accused and the deceased stayed in the same locality and had been part of the organizing team of the area8217;s Ganpati mandal since the past many years. As Chavan was one of the youngest organizers, he was generally given leg work assignments regarding mandal work. However, for the past many days, Jerry had been displeased with Chavan as the latter had been shirking work.8221;

According to the police on late Wednesday night, the two had been sitting in the mandal to keep an eye on the idol when they got engaged in an argument with Jerry scolding Chavan for not doing his work properly. The argument soon escalated and they started inflicting blows on each other. An enraged Chavan picked up a piece of bamboo lying nearby and struck Jerry on his head severely. As a bleeding Jerry was writhing on the ground, Chavan picked up a large rock lying in the rubble of a construction site and smashed it on his head. Chavan then fled from the spot. A few other members of the mandal who were alerted by the sounds of the fight discovered Jerry and took him to Nair hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries later in the morning.

A case of murder was registered against Chavan and after due inquiries he was arrested from a relative8217;s place in Dombivali on Friday morning. A police official from Tardeo police station who had been in the arresting team said on condition of anonymity, 8220;When we arrested Chavan, he was absolutely remorseless about his act. When we interrogated him, he confessed that he had a case against him at the Samta Nagar police station though we are not aware of the details of that case yet.8221;

Jerry is survived by his wife and 7-year-old son who were unavailable for comment as they had gone to attend some funeral ceremonies. A member of the mandal who had known both the accused and the deceased said, 8220;Usually, there is a group of 6-7 people who remain near the idol for safe-guarding during nights. But that night, only Jerry and Chavan were there .8221;