delhi

Updated: Apr 09, 2019 23:44 IST

A 46-year-old man was killed with an axe in front of his wife, on Saturday, a day after his family allegedly beat their

neighbour’s adoptive stray dog for defecating in front of their house in east Delhi’s Ghazipur, the police said.

The suspected killer, 29-year-old Suresh, had escaped from the spot, but was caught within a few hours from the same neighbourhood, deputy commissioner of police (East) Jasmeet Singh said, adding that the axe used in the crime has been recovered.

The DCP said it wasn’t possible to ascertain if the animal had survived the beating as the dog’s whereabouts remained unknown.

According to an investigating police officer, the events leading to the murder began on Friday night when the dog defecated in front of the victim’s, identified as just Mahajan, house. “When the dog tried to enter Mahajan’s house after defecating in front of it, Mahajan and his family used a stick to thrash the dog,” said the investigator quoting Suresh.

On Saturday morning, Suresh’s mother allegedly abused Mahajan’s family over the issue. “They blamed us for killing the dog. Soon, it turned into a quarrel between my husband and Suresh’s father. We intervened and ended the verbal duel,” Mahajan’s wife Krishnawati said.

Minutes later, Suresh came home to learn of the confrontation. “Suresh was angry that Mahajan had misbehaved with his elderly father,” the police officer said.

“Threatening to teach my husband a lesson for misbehaving with his father, Suresh rushed into house and came back with an axe. Without any further warning, he swung the axe on my husband’s head,” Krishnawati said.

Mahajan collapsed on the spot and Suresh walked away with the axe in his hand. A passerby informed the police as Mahajan’s family rushed him to a local hospital, from where he was referred to Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital. Mahajan succumbed to his injury on Monday after which the attempt to murder case registered against Suresh was turned into a case of murder.

Mahajan made stone grinders, and is survived by his wife and five children. The suspect, Suresh, is a daily-wage earner and lives with his family in Ghazipur’s Paper Market.

In the last six months, this is the third instance in which quarrels over treatment of pet dogs has led to murders. In January, a 30-year-old man was shot dead by the owner of a dog after the victim threw a stone at the canine to stop it from biting him in north-east Delhi’s Welcome. Before that, in October last year, a 40-year-old driver was stabbed to death in west Delhi’s Uttam Nagar after his mini truck brushed past a pet dog.