Hassan: Quarrel over lunch invite ends in murder of youth

Hassan: A quarrel between relatives over not receiving an invitation for the post-Pooja celebratory lunch (baadoota) ended in the murder of a youth at Purlehalli in Arsikere taluk here.

The victim has been identified as Sharath (28) of Purlehalli village.

It is learnt that the families of Girish and Sharath of Purlehalli had organized a pooja at Chaudeshwari Temple near Sakharayapatna in Chikkamagaluru district on Sunday. Thereafter a traditional celebratory lunch was also held.

Nataraju, a relative of Girish, allegedly did not receive an invite to the lunch. Angered by this, Nataraju and his family picked a fight with Girish on Sunday evening. But after timely intervention by village elders led to a compromise between the parties, sources said.

However, Nataraju took it as an insult and barged into the homes of Girish and Sharath later at night and attacked them with deadly weapons.

In the attack, Sharath, Rakesh, and Yogesh were injured and were rushed to a nearby hospital. As Sharath’s health was critical he was referred to a hospital in Bengaluru but died without responding to treatment.

The family of the deceased has named Natarju, Dhanpal, Arjun, Manjunatha, and others as the assailants. It is gathered that the accused are absconding.

A case has been registered in this connection at Banawara police station in Arsikere taluk.