Gomtinagar murder case: Addressing ex-seniors as ‘bhai’ not ‘bhaiyaji’ cost youth his life

LUCKNOW: For half a day on Thursday, four of Prashant Singh’s seniors traced his whereabouts till they hunted him down. Their goal: To kill him by stabbing. Their reason: Prashant and his friends addressed them as ‘bhai’ instead of ‘bhaiyaji’.

The 20-year-old engineering dropout, who was stabbed in an apartment compound in Gomtinagar Extension on Thursday afternoon, bled to death even before he could get medical attention.
The trigger for the murderous attack was a brawl on Wednesday night, said assistant commissioner of police, Gomtinagar, Santosh Singh. Alok Yadav, a roommate of the victim, told police that Prashant and two of their other roommates Sahej Mishra and Vikas Singh were out for dinner in a restaurant in Barabanki on Wednesday.
“During dinner, they met some of their former seniors from college. Sahej addressed them saying, ‘Aur bhai, itni raat ko kahan ghoom rahe.’ At this, Arpan Shukla from the other group got enraged and replied, ‘ College mein to bhaiyaji, bhaiyaji kehte the. Now that you have moved out, your words have changed,’” said ACP Singh.
Just then, Prashant intervened and said, “Aur kya, ab hum bahar hain. Jo jee main ayega, wo karenge”.
This did not go down well with Arpan, who shot back with, “Achchha nahi kar rahe ho tumlog seniors ke samne”.
A heated argument followed and turned ugly as both sides clashed physically. The situation was somehow managed by restaurant employees who pacified both the sides.
The next morning, around 11.30am, Sahej received a call from Arpan, Singh said.
The latter threatened Sahej saying, “Tum logon ne achchha nahi kiya, dekhna achchha nahi hoga,” and snapped the call.
According to police, investigation also suggests that soon after the call, Prashant left his house and Arpan and the others began following him.
Police sources had spotted Prashant’s car being followed from a spot near Manoj Pandey crossing to the apartment building in Gomtinagar where he was attacked.
Police have zeroed in on other suspects named Vimal Singh, Abdul Ghani Khan, Anjani Yadav and Abhishek Pandey.