Rent fight leaves 3 men with sambar burns

BENGALURU: A fight over rent dues landed three men in the burns wards of

Victoria Hospital

.

Around 8pm Friday, Siddaraju aka Siddappa was preparing tomato sambar for the occupants of a paying guest accommodation in Raghavendra Block, Hanumanthanagar, south Bengaluru.

Suddenly, he heard a heated argument between Shivaram S and H Suhas. While Shivaram was the building owner, the PG unit was run by Suhas's mother Hemalatha.

Shivaram's wife Rekha and Hemalatha had been good friends but they had a strained relationship after Hemalatha started the PG in the Shivaram's building. Rents were allegedly not paid on time and Shivaram was upset that the building's condition had begun to deteriorate due to poor maintenance, family sources said.

On Friday night, Shivaram was arguing with Suhas over three months rent due from Suhas and his mother. As the argument continued, Siddaraju backed Suhas and tempers soared.

In a fit of anger, Shivaram lifted the 10-litre utensil which had boiling sambar and threw the liquid on Suhas and Siddaraju. In the melee, the sambar fell on Shivaram too.

All three were rushed to the burns ward of Victoria Hospital where doctors treating them said Shivaram sustained 13% burns, Suhas 14% and Siddaraju 8%. "All three are out of danger and will be treated for another couple of days," doctors told police.

After shifting their family members to the hospital, Rekha and Hemalatha went to the police station and filed cases. Rekha, in her complaint, accused Suhas of misbehaving with her minor daughter and police booked Suhas under IPC section 354 (outraging modesty of woman). Hemalatha accused Shivaram of threatening her and he was booked under IPC 285 (negligent conduct with respect to fire or combustible matter) and 337 (causing hurt by endangering act).

According to police sources, Hemalatha and Rekha had earlier approached police seeking their intervention. "Since it was a civil matter, we had directed them to advocates. After a few sittings, Rekha and Hemalatha had agreed to settle matter and the final talks were scheduled to Saturday. But everything went wrong on Friday night," sources said.