Minor tiff leads to two murders at Ganesh pandal in Mumbai

Two brothers were allegedly stabbed to death by three persons on Monday after a fall-out between the two parties regarding a booklet about a Ganesh mandal. The Pydhonie police have arrested the trio on assault and murder charges.

The accused have been identified as Santosh, 34 and Parmeshwar Punekar, 25 along with their nephew, Navinchandra Bhole, 19, while the deceased have been identified as Bharat, 35, and Sharad Matekar, 36, president of the Mandvi Rahivashi Sarvajanik Ganesh Mandal.

The police said the incident occurred at around 11.30 pm, when the mandal was celebrating its 50th year. “The organisers had printed a booklet about the work their mandal had done. The Punekar brothers were irked by the fact that the booklet did not mention their father Bandu, who was an influential member of the mandal. What started as an argument turned into a scuffle between the two,” said an official.

He said Navin took out a knife and slashed the two. They were rushed to a nearby hospital where they were declared dead on arrival.

Mandal’s cashier Vikas Khichde said, “Parmeshwar was in an inebriated state, and was creating a ruckus about his father’s name not being printed, despite the fact that he was never a member of the mandal. But they began to assault the mandal members. When the Matekar brothers tried to intervene, the trio returned with weapons and bashed up the two.”