THANE: The Vartak Nagar police in Thane city on Tuesday arrested a 19-year-old and detained two minors for stabbing one of their friends in a dispute over a PUBG game.
The police said that the victim has been identified as Sahil Jadhav, 20 and a resident of Janki Devi chawl, while the accused has been identified as Pranav Mali, 19.
The police said that the accused and victim were friends and were into playing PUBG and due to which they frequently quarrelled.
“There were differences between them as they had made two groups of PUBG in which Sahil and Mali’s group would win some or the other game, due to which they used to quarrel with each other,” said a police officer. On Monday, around 8.30 pm, they had beer in the same locality and once again there was a quarrel after which three of the friends stabbed the victim all over and killed him on the spot.
PUBG, a China-based app, has been banned in India since September 2020. It is not sure whether the four friends were playing the banned version of the game.
The trio killed their friend on Monday around 9 pm near the Little Flower School in Vartak Nagar by stabbing him with a sharp weapon.
Locals claimed that they spotted the 4 friends near the school regularly in the last couple of days. They used to drink (liquor), play online games and get into constant fights, the locals claimed.
Senior police inspector of Vartak Nagar station, Sadashiv Nikam, said, “The deceased is identified as Sayeel Jadhav. He was killed between 9.30 pm and 10 pm on Monday. The 4 friends, including the main accused, Pranav Koli, used to play PUBG games frequently and used to quarrel over some issue or another after the game.”
“The main accused was arrested and the two minor boys were detained on Tuesday and a case of murder under Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 302 (punishment for murder) was registered against them,” said Nikam.
A local resident, Roal Saldanha, 33, said, “I saw the 4 (friends) fighting when I was passing by. Two of them were barely out of school. I yelled at them and told them to stop fighting. I later came to know about the murder and was shocked.”
Bahadur Singh, who works as a security guard in the area, added, “ For the last 4 to 5 days, there were constant fights between the 4 youngsters. It was mainly over a girl. I, too, have tried to stop them, but they regularly consumed alcohol and indulged in fights in the same area. I am not sure what Monday’s fight was but the 4 had been at it for a few days.”
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has officially included gaming disorder as a disease in the International Classification of Diseases.
Gaming disorder is defined as a pattern of behaviour characterised by impaired control over gaming (digital or video), increasing priority given to it over other activities to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other interests and daily activities, and continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences.
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