The Bengaluru police have arrested a man in connection with an alleged attempt to murder in which a football fan was chased with swords around a stadium by a gang of rivals during a Super Division League match of the Bengaluru Football Association on October 27.
The police arrested Mathew, 25, the prime suspect who had managed to escape after allegedly attempting to kill Sathya Kumar S, 32, who evaded the attack by fleeing from the stands and sheltering under the Bengaluru football stadium.
The police are on the lookout for other suspects, even as one of them, Tom Dobbin, 25, who has a criminal record, has sought anticipatory bail in the case. The police said that Mathew did not have a criminal record.
A gang of seven people wielding swords and knives approached Kumar at around 4.30 pm in the Bengaluru football stadium, allegedly with the intent to kill him, the police said.
Spillover from previous fights
According to a police complaint filed by Kumar, based on which an FIR was registered by the Ashoknagar police station in central Bengaluru, the attempt to murder occurred as a consequence of a fight he had with Mathew, his associate Hari, and others the previous night.
Kumar has stated that he was a former resident of Gautampura, a lower-income colony in East Bengaluru which is a nursery for football talent, and that he was confronted by Mathew when he visited the Gautampura football ground on the night of October 26.
Kumar has alleged that Mathew accused him of staring at a girl who was with him at the Gautampura ground and started a fight while also attempting to rob him. Mathew and his gang are alleged to have chased Kumar, who managed to hide and flee from the area to return to his home located a few kilometres away in South Bengaluru.
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The next day, when Kumar went to the Bengaluru football stadium to watch a Super League match, Mathew and his gang allegedly cornered Kumar and stated that they would kill him on the spot. However, Kumar managed to flee from the stands through the space below the stadium.
“When I attempted to flee from the attackers by jumping over the stadium wall, I injured my leg. I was rescued by the police after I telephoned the police control room,” states Kumar’s complaint. He has also referred to a previous enmity with Mathew and others over a fight that occurred a few months ago.
The murder attempt was on the lines of a September 12, 2021, murder that occurred at the stadium when a gang rivalry from the streets of East Bengaluru spilled over into the stadium, and a player-coach, Aravind, alias Lee, 27, was killed in the referee’s changing room, ahead of a Women’s A Division League match.
Aravind was playing in a tournament in a ground of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike opposite the football stadium on September 12, 2021, when his attackers tried to corner him, and he fled into the football stadium and took shelter in the referee’s changing room. The attackers, who were wearing helmets and masks, broke into the changing room and bludgeoned the victim with swords and knives.
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Aravind had a record of gang crimes, and the main accused in his murder, Stalin, was also involved with gang crimes in East Bengaluru.