'Bludgeoned to death with dumbbell': Bengaluru techie kills manager at office after tiff over keeping lights on; held

BENGALURU: An argument between two colleagues over something as trivial as switching off lights at their workplace ended in a gruesome murder in west Bengaluru.

A 41-year-old employee at adigital vault and photo-editing firm located near MC Layout in Govindarajnagar was bludgeoned to death with a dumbbell by one of his colleagues in the early hours of Saturday.


The accused was arrested after he surrendered at Govindarajanagar police station.

The victim, Bheemesh Babu, hailed from Chitradurga and was a manager at the firm.

The accused has been identified as Somala Vamshi, 24, a technical executive from Andhra Pradesh residing in Nayandahalli.

Also read: How a ‘turn off the lights’ request led to Bengaluru manager’s murder

Babu, who had a problem with bright lights, often used to insist his colleague turn off the lights when not needed.

On the night of the incident, around 1 am, Vamshi, who was still editing videos, reportedly got irritated when Babu told him to switch off the lights. A verbal spat followed, which quickly escalated.

In a fit of rage, Vamshi allegedly hurled chilli powder at Babu, picked up an iron dumbbell, and repeatedly struck him on the head, face and chest with it.

As Babu collapsed, Vamshi panicked. He rushed out to meet one of his colleagues, Gowri Prasad, in Nayandahalli. Prasad then approached one of his friends for help. Soon, all three were back in the office.

As Babu lay motionless, Prasad and his friend called the ambulance. The ambulance staff checked Babu and declared him dead.

A case of murder has been registered, and investigations are on. DC (West) Girish S confirmed that keeping lights on in office was the trigger for the murder.

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