Mumbai:
Around 10.00 pm on Saturday a 20-year-old man walked into the Vile Parle police station, clothes soaked in blood and a large knife in one hand. As he entered the police station the youth screamed belligerently, "I have killed a man, which I don't regret. Arrest me."
The accused was later identified as Noor Alam Abdul Aziz (20), originally from Lucknow, who was working as a scrap dealer in a shop at Sanjay Gandhi Nagar, near the police station.
In his confession, Aziz told the cops that he was employed at the shop for the last five months. He had also become very close to the owner.
Then in the first week of January, a man identified by Aziz as Pandey (45) joined the business. On his very first day, he allegedly had an intense verbal fight with the accused.
Aziz believed that Pandey would take over his business in the area. He also claimed that a few days ago Pandey had sent three people to threaten him, who demanded that he leave the shop and work in a different area. Aziz, angry at the turn of events, decided that killing Pandey was the only way out. The duo lived in the shop where they worked.
Taking no chancesOn January 21, the two of them had their dinner and at around 10 pm when Pandey was going out of the shop, Aziz called him back and stabbed him with a knife on his chest six times.
"I was just about to shut my store when I heard some screams. I saw a man (Aziz) stabbing another person. Soon after the incident, the attacker left the place," said Amit Shah, owner of a general store in the area.
Following the incident, some pedestrians who had witnessed the murder began chasing Aziz but he managed to flee. Aziz then went straight to the Vile Parle police station and surrendered.
The accused was produced in the holiday court at Bandra yesterday. When the judge asked him if he had something to say on the crime, which he had committed, Aziz said, "I have no regrets for what I have done. If I had not taken this step, he would have killed me. If there was another person like him, I would have killed him too."
The accused has been charged under section 302 (murder). The court has remanded the accused to police custody till January 31 and the case is under investigation.