Karnataka: 22-year-old man stabbed to death in Congress MLA’s victory party

The trouble started when the deceased insisted on singing a popular Kannada film song. But another faction led by prime accused, Kabab Murthy, urged to sing another song.

A 22-year-old youth was stabbed to death in a scuffle over a song on Saturday night, police officials said. The deceased has been identified as Varun, a native of Tarikere of Chikkamagaluru district.

The deceased has been identified as Varun, a native of Tarikere of Chikkamagaluru district. (Getty Images)

According to police officials, the supporters of Tarikere Assembly constituency Congress MLA G H Srinivas had organised a felicitation ceremony to mark his victory in the recently held Assembly election. The MLA defeated his rival, BJP candidate D S Suresh by a margin of 12,131 votes.

The trouble started when the deceased, Varun, insisted on singing a popular Kannada film song. But another faction led by prime accused Kabab Murthy opposed Varun’s request and urged to sing another song. This led to an altercation between the two groups, Tarikere inspector B Veerendra said.

But soon after the orchestra ended, Kabab Murthy picked up a fight with Varun and he allegedly stabbed him with a machete and Varun died on the spot. Soon after the incident Murthy and the gang fled from the scene to Bengaluru, he added.

Chikkamagaluru superintendent of police Uma Prashanth visited the spot and formed a police team to nab the accused.

“Following definite clues, we chased the accused and arrested seven from a lodge in Bengaluru in the wee hours of Sunday,’’ Tarikere inspector and investigation officer B Veerendra told HT. The arrested were identified as K Murthy, Naveen, Sanjay, Gagan, Nithin, Dhanush and Eshwar .

He said that the officials have registered a case against 12 persons under IPC sections 302 ( murder ) 307 (attempt to murder ), 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (guilty of rioting) , 148 (rioting with deadly weapon) in connection with the incident.

The other five accused are still at large and will be arrested soon, he added. He said both have a history of enmity which was triggered.