Woman-son held for killing man after fight over land

The Versova police has arrested a mother-son duo for allegedly killing a 50-year-old man, who runs a Chinese stall, after they fought over a piece of land in Versova village in Andheri (west) on Saturday afternoon.

The deceased has been identified as Mahesh Bariya and the accused as Kishan Shah (35) and his mother Shobha Shaha (52). Both accused and deceased were neighbours. Shah was constructing a small toilet near his house but Bariya got into a fight with him saying that the toilet was being built on his land. He made Shah stop the construction work due to which a fight broke out around noon. “Shah in a fit of rage brought an iron hammer and hit Bariya on the chest while Shah’s mother also attacked him with a bamboo,” said police inspector D.S. Patil of the Versova police station.

The neighbours somehow intervened and managed to break the fight. Bariya was rushed to Cooper Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries around 4 pm. Shah and his mother have been arrested on murder charges and remanded to police custody. Interestingly, Shah’s sister told The Asian Age that her mother had called on the 103 helpline number after which two police constables had arrived on the spot.

Shaha’s son-in-law Shakti Devra told this newspaper, “Six people including two women assaulted my Shah. My mother-in-law is not involved in the crime. I have no idea why she is being arrested. She was the one who called on the helpline. Further, when we went to register the NC they just took down the name of the deceased. They did not book the five others who had attacked them.”