22-year-old man killed by friends over mobile phone in Mumbai

The Pydhonie police have arrested two men for allegedly killing their 22-year-old friend in a scuffle over a mobile phone in south Mumbai.

The victim was identified as Mansoor Shaikh. The accused were identified as Suraj Rai, 22, and his friend Bittu Das, 24.

Shaikh was killed when he had gone to the residence of Rai on Saturday to return Rai’s mobile phone, which he had borrowed. Police said Shaikh had borrowed the phone ‘on trial’ and was going to buy it after using it. However, after a month of using the phone, Shaikh refused to buy it, saying the screen was damaged. Police said Shaikh was killed in a scuffle that broke out when he went to Rai’s house to return the phone.

Police said Shaikh had left his house on Saturday night after informing his grandmother that he was going to his friend’s house to return the borrowed mobile phone and would be back within 15 minutes.

When Shaikh did not return even after half-an-hour, his grandmother went to look for him.

On reaching Rai’s locality, Shaikh’s grandmother saw Shaikh lying on the ground bleeding. She rushed him to a hospital with the help of neighbours but Shaikh was declared dead on admission.

Avinash Kanade, senior police inspector of Pydhonie police station, said a team of officers was dispatched to trace Rai who was supposed to meet Shaikh. The officers detained Rai and questioned him.

On questioning Rai confessed that he and Das had fought with Shaikh over the mobile phone and Shaikh had suffered injuries in the scuffle and died. Following this, police arrested Rai and Das on the charge of murder.

Kanade said it is not yet clear how exactly Shaikh suffered head injury as he died of brain damage. “We are now finding out the sequence of events which led to Shaikh’s murder,” he said.