20-year-old dies after fight over noisy galli cricket

What began as a familiar scene in every cricket-loving neighbourhood ended in brutal violence yesterday, claiming the life of a 20-year-old man. A local carpenter in Kurar village, Malad (East) died from injuries sustained in a fight he picked with other youths in his locality, in protest of a noisy game of cricket played outside his residence. His injuries had led to brain damage, revealed the police.

1. Three youths get into a fight with resident Sunil Mohan Kazare when he demands that they stop playing cricket in his laneu00a0
2. u00a0When the youths refuse to listen, Kazare gets a piece of bamboo and assaults one of the boys
3. u00a0The boy's friends retaliate and hits Kazare on the head
4. u00a0Kazare is found unconscious in his apartment in the evening, and dies the following day. Illustration/Amit Bandre

According to the Kurar police, the incident happened at 4.30 pm on Saturday. The victim, identified as Sunil Mohan Kazare, was a carpenter residing in Ambedkar Nagar in Kurar village, Malad (East). Kazare was taking a nap, when he heard a few boys playing galli cricket in his lane.u00a0Already disturbed by the din they created, Kazare's temper rose as the cricket ball kept hitting his door. According to senior police inspector Subhash Dafle of Kurar police station, Kazare emerged from his house to hurl abuses at the boys, who live in the same area.

The boys retaliated, letting loose a string of abuses, and making it clear that they would no stop their game. A furious Kazare then retreated indoors, only to emerge wielding a piece of bamboo. He then began assaulting one of the cricket players, 17-year-old Ashish Singh. Seeing their friend under attack, two of Ashish's playmates - Lallan Singh and Dheeraj Saroj - grabbed some sticks and violently assaulted Kazare, hitting him repeatedly on the head.

"Kazare had suffered injuries to his head - soon, however, the locals intervened and stopped the fight," said Dafle.Injured, Kazare retired to sleep, while the boys, who are students of a Malad based college, went home. At 7 pm, Kazare's friend went over to his house for a visit. Worried when he received no response, he broke open the door with the help of locals, to find Kazare unconscious and bleeding.

They rushed Kazare to the Bhagwati hospital, where they found that he had suffered a concussion and lost huge quantities of blood. At noon yesterday, Kazare was pronounced dead by the doctors. The police have arrested the three boys on murder charges, and sent them to the Dongri Children's home.u00a0