Youth plagued by health issues attacks kids with knife

Mangaluru: A youth plagued by health issues including alcohol abuse and undergoing treatment for a mental ailment, attacked two children with a knife– his neighbours—over a minor disagreement over them playing in the area, at Shaktinagar on Saturday. Luckily for the children – Chirag, 9 and Hardik, 4—the accused Devaraj, 36, was in a drunken stupor and ended up causing them minor scratches, which required nothing more than a few stitches.
Jagadish R, police inspector, Kankanady Town police station, said the victims, who are brothers, were playing in the neighbourhood where Devaraj stays with other children, when he objected to them making noise. When the children refused to pay heed and continued playing, Devaraj allegedly picked up the knife and attacked the duo. But for his physical frailty and drunken state, he could have caused more fatal damage to the children than he ended up doing, Jagadish said.
The mother of the accused told the police that her son was undergoing treatment for mental condition and would get easily agitated over minor issues, and that the incident on Saturday was symptomatic of his health condition. Police recovered the knife that Jagadish used to assault the brothers and booked a case of attempt to murder under section 307 of the Indian Penal Code. He was produced before the judge who remanded him in judicial custody.
Contract labourer dies
A contract labourer who was working at the Petrochemical Fluidized Catalytic Cracking (PFCC) unit of Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), succumbed to injuries sustained while working at the unit near here on Saturday. The victim is Wakil, who was employed by Aakash Engineering, and was carrying out work for MRPL. Wakil, who was rushed to a private hospital in the city, succumbed to his injuries there.
MRPL authorities who confirmed the incident said the factory inspectorate has already been informed of the incident as per norms. “The incident took place at the PFCC unit, when a pipe fell on the labourer’s head, causing him grievous injuries,” a MRPL spokesperson said, adding the company and the contractor will be subject to inquiries by the factory inspectorate as well as other statutory agencies pertaining to refineries.