Hubballi: If you thought addiction to video gaming was an urban phenomenon, think again. So addicted was a 21- year- old in a village in Belagavi to the game, PUBG (Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds) on his mobile phone, that he brutally killed his father for scolding him for playing it incessantly.
Raghuveer Kumbar of Kakati village on the outskirts of Belagavi had become addicted to the game after failing his diploma course and his father, Shankrappa Kumbar (59) , who retired as a carpenter in the district armed reserve police three months ago, often scolded him for playing it all through the night. When the young man injured his hand on hitting the wall while playing the game Sunday midnight , his father became furious and asked him to stop being so addicted to it, the police said.
But this so enraged Raghuveer that he smothered and strangled his father to death and then beheaded him with a sickle. Not stopping there, he also cut off his left leg in a fit of anger before fleeing from the house, according to the police, who caught him within a few hours of the search.
He had locked the room in which his mother slept before killing his father and stayed on in the house till morning till she raised an alarm from inside her room, the police said. He is the only son, although he has two married sisters and is neither an alcoholic or a drug addict, going by Police inspector , Srishail Kaujalagi..
Horrified by the crime, Belagavi police commissioner , B S Lokesh Kumar visited the village and a case has been registered at the Kakati police station.
