Bouncers held for murder outside bar

Nirmal Mangar, TT, Gangtok, May 20: Two bouncers of the pub outside which an engineering student was beaten to death early morning yesterday have been arrested for allegedly not preventing a brawl inside the bar preceding the murder.

The death of Rakshit Singh Meena, a third-year civil engineering student of Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology, forced police to issue an order today, stipulating that all pubs should stop serving alcohol by 11pm and bring down the shutters in another 30 minutes.

The 22-year-old Meena died after he had been assaulted by a group of local youths outside Café Live and Loud at Tibet Road here around 1.30am yesterday. Minutes before the attack, Meena and five of his friends from the college had a fight with the local youths on the dance floor of the pub over a woman who was present there.

Five youths had been arrested yesterday in connection with Meena’s death.

Police said bouncers Phurba Tamang, 29, and Karna Hang Subba, 25, had been arrested yesterday evening.

“The bouncers have been arrested for not taking any action when a brawl took place at the disco. If they had stopped the two groups from fighting, the life of a student wouldn’t have been lost,” said deputy inspector-general (range) Mandeep Tuli.

The bouncers from Gangtok have been charged under Sections 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention), 201 (giving false information to screen offender or whoever, knowing or having reason to believe that an offence has been committed) and 302 (punishment for murder).

All the seven arrested men were produced in a court here today and remanded in police custody for six days.

Meena’s body was flown to Delhi from Bagdogra this morning.

Family sources said the body had reached Jaipur by road. He was the son of B.S. Meena, the deputy inspector-general of Purnea, Bihar.

To avert incidents like Meena’s death, the police today decided to bring forward the closure time of pubs by 30 minutes. “Most of the pubs are flouting the rule on timings in Gangtok. According to the new order, pubs should stop serving alcohol at 11pm and they should be completely shut down by 11.30pm. We are curtailing the time to keep a check on violent incidents at bars,” said superintendent of police (East), Manoj Tewari.

Earlier, bars had to stop serving liquor by 11.30pm and bring down shutters by 12am. The new rule will come into effect from tonight.

Tewari said the police were trying to find out if Café Live and Loud had violated rules on timing on Saturday night.

The registrar of the Manipal University, Vandana Suhag, said the institution would be more vigilant while issuing out-passes to students. Meena and the other five students had gone out on Saturday night to celebrate the birthday of one of them.

“A disciplinary action like suspension is taken if a student does not come back to hostel by 10pm. In this (Meena’s) case, the students were given night pass with the consent of their parents. We will now ensure that no students flouts the rule,” said the registrar.