A beach picnic turned violent after an alcohol-fuelled argument between friends escalated into a brutal stabbing. Four friends, all working as cybersecurity analysts, had gone to Gorai beach for an outing when two of them, after a bout of drinking, began quarrelling over who was more efficient at work.

The dispute was settled, and the group left for home in two separate vehicles. The victim, Pranav Rajhans, 27, and the accused Vinod Rajpurohit, 30, were travelling in the same vehicle. When they stopped at a petrol pump in Uttan in the early hours of Sunday, Rajpurohit, under the pretext of hugging Rajhans to make up for the quarrel, came close and stabbed him multiple times with a sharp object. Rajpurohit then fled with Rajhans’ vehicle.