Brijesh Rai and his colleagues went to Lost Lemons restro-bar at Noida's Gardens Galleria Mall
Severe head injury and a ruptured spleen led to the death of a 30-year-old private firm executive after a brawl over bill payment at a bar in a Noida mall, police officials said today.
Brijesh Rai had gone for a party with his colleagues to the Lost Lemons restro-bar at Noida's Gardens Galleria Mall on Monday evening where they got into a fight with the staff over the bill, the officials said.
The bill was around Rs 7,400 with Brijesh Rai and his colleagues objecting to being charged some additional amount for the services, leading to an argument that soon escalated into a fist fight, they said.
"The post mortem (forensic) report showed Rai's cause of death as head injury, spleen rupture and liquid in stomach," a police officer said, citing the autopsy findings.
Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Noida) Ranvijay Singh said an FIR or case has been filed at the local Sector 39 police station in Noida and till Tuesday evening 16 people were in police custody over the case.
The bar has already been sealed in order to prevent any tampering with the evidence, the officer told Press Trust of India, adding that the police are thoroughly analysing CCTV footage gathered from the spot.
Speaking with reporters, Brijesh Rai's wife Pooja claimed that "My husband was not taken to hospital on time".
Meanwhile, news agency Press Trust of India reported that a video has surfaced on social media allegedly showing Brijesh Rai's wife Pooja reprimanding her husband's colleagues and asking them to leave the hospital where the body was taken.
In the video, she is also allegedly seen questioning her husband's colleagues what was the need for them to get into a fight over a bill, saying what kind of "friends" they were to have landed Brijesh Rai in trouble.
"Frankly, I was always against friends like you all. Friends who get sloshed and lose consciousness. Today the same friends have got him killed and now you show like you are family. Families are not like this, neither are friends like this," she allegedly told her husband's colleagues.
Brijesh Rai lived in Sector 76, Noida with his wife, a school teacher, and two children aged five and three.
Further investigation in the case in underway, according to the police.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)