Bengaluru: 22-year-old electrocuted, family calls it murder

Bengaluru: A 22-year-old man was found dead under mysterious conditions at a chicken and mutton shop in J.P. Nagar First phase on Sunday. The deceased, Aslam Pasha, was a resident of Shakambari Nagar and worked as a butcher at the New Karnataka Chicken & Mutton Centre.

While the chicken shop owner and a colleague told the police that Aslam died of electric shock when he switched on an electric chicken feather cleaning machine with his wet hands, the victim’s family is crying foul that he was murdered over a trivial financial row. The police have now registered a case of murder.

The police said that the body appeared to be electrocuted, but they are still investigating other angles to find out the truth. “We are waiting for the postmortem report to ascertain the cause of death,” a senior police officer said.

The incident occurred around 10.25 pm on Sunday when Aslam switched on the machine with his wet hands, shop owner Nayeem Pasha told the police.

But the victim’s family said that Aslam was working at the meat shop for the last three months and he had not been going to work for the last 15 days. On Sunday, he was asked to come to collect the dues and when he went there, he was beaten up mercilessly. An injured Aslam was shifted to a hospital where he stopped responding to treatments and later died, his family members told the police.

“We have taken up a case of murder and are waiting for the postmortem report to pursue the case further,” said a senior police officer. The victim earned '500 per day, the police said.