Friend stabs youth to death

A 28-year-old man was stabbed by his 23-year-old friend after they had a fight under the influence of liquor late on Sunday night in Khot Dongri area of Malad (east).

The Dindoshi police arrested the accused after laying a trap in the area on Monday evening.

The accused, identified as Vipul Vala, was booked under the Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code for murder and will be produced in court on Tuesday.

Vala works at an embroidery workshop in Malad. Deceased Sanjay Subhash Soni, a resident of Khot Dongri, was earlier working at a imitation jewellery workshop and started working as a courier boy two months ago.

According to the police officials, Soni knew Vala for the past two years and both were good friends. However they would often fight as Soni was aware of a few secrets of Vala and used to blackmail him from time to time.

On Sunday, Vala and Soni were together the whole day and by nightfall both went home. However, later Soni visited Vala’s house to inquire about his missing cell phone.

Soni suspected that Vala had stolen the device and the duo got into a fight over this. In a fit of rage, Vala stabbed Soni with a kitchen knife and fled. Later, locals informed police officials about the incident after which they started searching for Vala.

After learning from certain sources that Vala would be found in a market in the evening, officials in plain clothes were deployed there and arrested him.