Five friends’ party ends in murder of one

NAVI MUMBAI: A party took a deadly turn for five friends from Panvel on Sunday evening, when a tiff escalated into a major fight leading to one of them being stabbed to death. The deceased was identified as Vijay Kalse, 27.
The others in the party were identified as Ravi Mewati, 30, Rahul Mewati, 28, Tarun Valimiki, 28 and one unknown person. They were all partying with the deceased at Usarli village in Panvel taluka.
Police said that all of them were under the influence of alcohol when an argument between the deceased and Ravi Mewati turned into fist fights and culminated with Mewati stabbing Kalse on his chest with a knife.
After the deceased collapsed, the friends called an ambulance and took him to Panvel sub-district hospital. Kalse was declared dead by the doctor at the hospital. Panicked on finding that their friend had succumbed to the injury, all four fled from the scene. Hospital authorities then alerted the police.
“The argument led to both hitting each other and eventually escalated to stabbing. Further investigation is underway,” said a police officer.
In absence of any leads on the case, police relied on the inputs provided by the ambulance driver. In the FIR lodged with the police, the driver was the primary complainant. He informed about two friends accompanying the deceased in the ambulance and two following them on a scooter. Immediately after the doctor declared Kalse dead at 8.40 pm, two of the friends escaped on the pretext of answering a phone call while the primary accused was held back by the ambulance driver but, in the midst of informing the police, he too escaped.
“The friends had lied to the ambulance driver that Kalse had collapsed and needed medical attention. Call data records were accessed of the time when the ambulance was booked. The primary accused Ravi Mewati’s location was traced to a relative’s place in Kamothe and he was arrested,” said the police.
A case was registered under section 103(1) (murder by group of persons) and 3(5) (joint criminal liability when two or more act with a common intention) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.