Man killed in spat over dog barking during T20 match

Bengaluru, Mar 29: A petty argument over watching the World T20 match between India and Australia on Sunday night snowballed into an ugly fight, leaving a man dead and two others injured. The incident occurred at SK?Garden in JC Nagar, northcentral Bengaluru.

Avinash, 23, a resident of SK?Garden, was watching the match along with friends, David and Kenneth, at a large screen put up at 4th Cross in the locality.

Around 10.30 pm as India were cruising to a famous win, John Kennedy, 24, a youth from the locality, took his dog for a walk. He came to the place where the match was being watched. The dog started barking. Avinash and his friends got annoyed and asked Kennedy to go away.

But he ignored them and stayed put, watching the match himself. The dog barked again, further irritating Avinash and his friends. They picked a fight with Kennedy and beat him up, forcing him to retreat.

Kennedy went home and told his mother and sister about what had happened. The women took him along and went to the spot. They scolded Avinash and his friends. But the men retaliated and thrashed Kennedy. His mother and sister also received some blows in the melee.

Kennedy got furious, picked a broken liquor bottle and pierced it into Avinash's abdomen. He also attacked David and Kenneth. Thereafter, he left the place along with his mother and sister.

Avinash collapsed and started bleeding. Local residents took all the three men to hospital. Avinash succumbed to his injuries while David and Kenneth are said to be out of danger. The jurisdictional JC Nagar rushed to the spot and arrested Kennedy from the terrace of a building where he was hiding.

Just after Avinash was attacked, his younger brother called up his mother and told her about the altercation. The parents rushed to the private hospital and thence to Bowring Hospital where Avinash was admitted. But he died before the parents could reach there.

Avinash was the eldest son of Shankar, a contract worker. He had dropped out of college and was jobless. Kennedy was working as a delivery body with a sales agency, the police aid.