A 39-year-old man sliced off the finger of a movie theatre staff, when the latter refused to arrange tickets for the Kannada movie, KGF. The accused wanted to illegally sell the tickets at the Veeresh Theatre in MC Layout, Magadi Road.

Vijayanagar police arrested Ramesh R, a resident of JJ Nagar on Mysuru Road. A Aravind, a maintenance staff at the theatre for the past 11 years, was admitted to a hospital.

A senior police officer said that the theatres started issuing KGF movie tickets from December 13, well before the scheduled release of movie. Ramesh came to Veeresh Theatre on December 17, around 6 pm, under the influence of alcohol. He then demanded Aravind to arrange a few tickets, so that he could sell them later for a higher price on the release date. When Aravind didn’t agree to the proposition, Ramesh started abusing him verbally.

Later, Aravind somehow shooed Ramesh out of the theatre complex. But, within 15 minutes Ramesh returned and started assaulting Aravind. In fit of rage, when Ramesh drew a knife, Aravind’s left ring finger was cut. Meanwhile, other staff at the theatre, who heard screams, rushed to help Aravind and ferried him to a hospital.

The theatre staff alerted the police and sought action against Ramesh. Police rushed to the spot and gathered eyewitness accounts, and searched for Ramesh in the surrounding areas. Soon after, as the police tracked him down, seeing the Hoysala vehicle, Ramesh started running. He was then chased and arrested. He was booked under attempt to murder, among other sections, produced before the magistrate and remanded to judicial custody.

Ramesh gave a statement to the police in which he said that himself and Aravind were friends for several years, and they had differences over a financial dispute. He did not demand movie tickets from Aravind, he claimed in the statement.