Polytechnic student stabbed to death outside govt hostel in Latur, 4 held

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: A 22-year-old govt polytechnic student was stabbed to death outside a govt hostel in Latur on Monday evening following a minor dispute over alleged damage to a two-wheeler. The police arrested four people and secured their custody until Feb 21.Latur superintendent of police Amol Tambe said, "The victim, as well as three of the four accused in this case, are students of the govt polytechnic college. The youth accused of stabbing, however, is an outsider."The deceased has been identified as Vikram Narayan Panchal, a resident of Kumbharwadi in Renapur taluka. The incident took place around 5.30pm on Monday outside the hostel of the govt polytechnic college in Latur city, where all the students involved resided.The arrested accused are Kedar Kshirsagar (19), Shridhar Jadhav, alias Shridhar Patil (24), Pranav Udgire (20) and Sujal Dinde (19). While Kshirsagar, Udgire and Dinde are students of the college, Patil is not a student of the institution, the police said.According to Shivaji Nagar police, an argument first erupted around 3pm over alleged damage to a scooter. The dispute reportedly began when compensation was sought for the damage, leading to a scuffle between the two groups.The police said that later in the evening, the accused regrouped near the hostel gate and confronted Panchal and his associates again. Armed with wooden sticks, they allegedly assaulted them. During the attack, Panchal was stabbed in the chest, and he sustained critical injuries. He was taken to a nearby hospital, where doctors declared him dead on arrival.Inspector Abhishek Shinde and his team tracked down and arrested all four suspects within hours. They were produced before a local court on Tuesday, which remanded them in police custody.Efforts are on to recover the weapon used in the crime and to verify whether any other people were involved.