E-Paper
Confrontation over cricket leads to death of fan in Kolhapur
Accused are cricket fans, who were under the influence of alcohol when they assaulted the victim, said police
An Indian Premier League (IPL) match between Mumbai Indians (MI) and SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) took a devastating turn in Kolhapur, resulting in the death of a cricket enthusiast amidst a heated altercation between fans.
The incident was reported on Wednesday night at around 10:30 pm. As per police information received on Saturday, the deceased has been identified as Bandopant Tibile (63) resident of Hanmantwadi. The accused Balwant Zhanjage (50) and Sagar Zhanjage (35), from Hanmantwadi were arrested by Karveer Police.
Police said that the accused along with others were watching an IPL match between MI and SRH on Wednesday night. According to officials, they were already disappointed because of the huge score displayed by the SRH batsmen.
Even after they were confident that MI would surely successfully chase the target. They were joined by Tibile. Tibile was a fan of the Chennai Super Kings (CSK). However, after the departure of Rohit Sharma on merely 26 runs, Tibile raised doubts about the possibility of MI winning the match. Soon after, Tibile praised his favourite CSK team.
Angered by that, the accused started beating up Tibile with wooden sticks. Immediately locals intervened and he was swiftly transported to a hospital but passed away while undergoing treatment on March 31.
Kishor Shinde, police inspector at Karveer Police station said, “Accused are cricket fans, who were under the influence of alcohol when they assaulted Tibile.’’
Shinde further confirmed that there were no other reasons behind this murder and there was no personal rivalry between the accused and the deceased.
A case has been registered at Karveer police station under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the accused were remanded to police custody till April 1.
