Bengaluru history-sheeter assaults father after being denied money for gambling, held

Police in Bengaluru have arrested a 28-year-old history-sheeter for allegedly assaulting his own father in a fit of rage, after the latter refused to give him money for gambling on Saturday. He is currently in judicial custody.

The accused has been identified as Santosh, also known as Scrap Mukund. 60-year-old Ramappa, a resident of Hanumanthanagar, was admitted in a critical condition to a city hospital.

An attempt to murder case was registered on Sunday against Santosh at the Girijanagar Police Station. The case was registered on a suo-motu basis against Santosh, who has been involved in multiple burglary cases in the past, as his father refused to file a complaint. He was recently out on bail in connection with a theft case, police said. A statement from Ramappa’s wife, Lalitha has also been recorded.

According to reports, Santosh, a habitual gambler, had lost money to the tune of lakhs in gambling recently and was determined to win it back using the same method. It was again when he lost another Rs 1 lakh in gambling on Saturday night that he asked his father to pay the money owed by him. Santosh brought the people he owed money with him to his home as he did not have the money with himself.

It was when Ramappa refused to hand him the money and advised him to quit his gambling habit that Santosh took a knife and stabbed his own father in his chest and temple. Neighbours who were alerted by Ramappa’s screams reached his house and took him to the hospital. Lalitha who was at a neighbour’s place at that time, returned home hearing the screams to find her husband lying in a pool of blood.

While Ramappa was trying to survive on his life’s earnings due to his advanced age, Santosh would spend all his money on gambling, police said, even though his father had brought him an auto rickshaw.