A 21-year-old youth, Rahul Pal, was stabbed to death on Tuesday night in the Ashoka Garden area. The incident occurred following a dispute with two co-workers from the factory where he worked. The accused, two brothers, suspected Rahul of supporting a factory contractor during their disagreement and attacked him fatally.

Rahul Pal, a native of Gura Barela in Badaun, Uttar Pradesh, had been working as a laborer in a gutka factory for the past two months. He lived with his cousin Surjeet in Subhash Colony. On Tuesday night, after having dinner, Rahul went for a walk with his friend Aryan near his rented accommodation. A heated argument broke out between the accused, Lokesh and Bhupendra Suryavanshi, and the contractor, Shyam.

The accused believed that the contractor had called Rahul to confront them. In a fit of rage, Lokesh stabbed Rahul in the chest, while both brothers beat him with kicks and punches. Injured, Rahul tried to walk away but collapsed a few steps later. The contractor and a bystander rushed him to the hospital, where he was declared dead.

Police registered a case of murder and arrested the accused, who were allegedly under the influence of alcohol at the time of the attack. The murder weapon, a knife, was recovered from their possession. The incident’s eyewitness, Aryan, managed to flee the scene and later provided key details to the police.

Ashoka Garden Police Station in-charge Hemant Srivastava stated that the accused confessed to the crime during interrogation. Postmortem of the deceased was conducted at Hamidia Hospital on Wednesday.