Pan shop owner killed for refusing to give cigarette on credit

Mumbai:

A Pan shop owner was killed and his mother and 12-year-old brother were attacked for refusing to sell a cigarette on credit in suburban Bandra (East) on early Thursday morning, police said. The incident took place at Gate Number 18 outside the Bandra Railway Terminus where Mudassar Khan, the victim, ran a shop selling tobacco products.

Accused Samir Khan (22) asked him for a cigarette on credit, but Mudassar told him that he would not get anything unless he paid earlier dues. In a fit a rage, Samir picked up a knife from the nearby coconut-water shop and slit Mudassar’s throat, a police officer said.

He also attacked Mudassar’s mother Noorjahan and his 12-year-old brother when they tried to intervene, and then fled from the spot, the official said. Mudassar was taken to nearby Bhabha Hospital where he was declared dead.

Samir, who himself had sustained injuries in the incident, went to V N Desai Hospital from where the police nabbed him, said senior inspector of Nirmal Nagar police station Shashikant Bhandare. He was apparently under the influence of drugs, and was booked under IPC sections 302 (murder) and 307 (attempt to murder), the inspector added.