Bengaluru: Agitated over his 13-year-old brother playing video games on the mobile phone, an 18-year-old youth killed him by repeatedly hitting him with a hammer, the police said on Saturday.
Police officers said Shivakumar murdered Pranesh in a grove near Neriga village in Sarjapur on Bengaluru’s outskirts.
According to the police, on Wednesday afternoon, Shivakumar who had left with his parents for daily wage construction work, returned to serve lunch to Pranesh who was alone at home.
Pranesh, who had come to the city 20 days ago for his summer vacation, was occupied with Shivakumar’s phone and refused to give it back to him. Shivakumar was agitated and returned to work.
A little later, Shivakumar returned with a hammer and took Pranesh to a grove near their shed to merely scare him, the police said.
“A minor argument ensued between the brothers,” a senior police officer told DH. “To scare his brother, the suspect hit a nearby tree with a hammer. As the arguments became heated, the suspect hit the victim on his head with the hammer and when he fell down, he hit him seven to eight times.”
At around 6.30 pm, when their parents returned from work, Shivakumar told them he found Pranesh dead in the grove. The Sarjapur police were then informed.
“The suspect was the last person to see the victim and the first to discover the body. When the police questioned him, he confessed to the murder,” Mallikarjun Baladandi, superintendent of police, Bengaluru Rural told DH.
The family hailed from Adoni in Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool district. The boys’ parents and some relatives moved to Bengaluru nearly 20 years ago in search of work. Shivakumar joined them after he dropped out of Class 7, while Pranesh stayed with his grandmother in Adoni for studies and had just finished his Class 7.
Published 18 May 2024, 21:58 IST