US national dies after fight with guard

GURUGRAM: A 50-year-old US national of Indian origin died after an alleged fight with a security guard and another resident in DLF Phase-2 on Wednesday evening, police said.

The two accused were arrested and remanded to a day’s police custody. The post-mortem examination suggests that the man, who was a software developer, suffered a heart attack.

A case of murder, under sections (302) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code, was filed against two accused— identified as Manik Khosla (25) and Pradeep Singh (46)—at the DLF Phase-2 police station on Wednesday evening.

The deceased was identified as Somou Balaya, who had been staying in DLF Phase-1, where he had constructed a house that he visited once a year during his son’s summer break.

Balaya hails from Puducherry and was in India since June 18, the police said.

According to the police, the incident took place around 5pm on Wednesday, near a private school in Block P of DLF Phase 2, when Balaya was returning home after dropping his 14-yearold son for swimming classes. He had reportedly asked for directions from a security guard deployed near the gate. An argument broke out when Balaya confronted the guard after he was allegedly given wrong directions to the gate, the police said.

The police said they received a call informing them of a man found lying by the roadside. A team from DLF Phase 2 police station reached the spot and rushed him to a private hospital, where he was declared brought dead, assistant commissioner of police Shamsher Singh said.

“We could identify him through the passport card kept in his wallet, and got his residential address from the visiting card in his pocket,” Singh said.

The police said they got suspicious after they visited the spot and cross-checked with the accused Pradeep, who had called the police control room. “He was giving us contradictory statements. When we checked the CCTV footage, the two men (Pradeep and Khosla) were seen assaulting the deceased who later fell on the ground. They were arrested,” Singh said.