The Varangaon police said the victim, Sarfaraz Syed, was admitted to a private hospital, where he succumbed to bullet wounds during treatment.
The attackers, Siddharth Ramdas Dhivre (27) and Bhushan alias Bisla Raju Sawale (20), who have been arrested, laid a honey trap to target Sarfaraz. On Nov 1, Sarfaraz was waiting in Varangaon to see a girl he met on social media a month ago, according to his police statement.
The Varangaon police said that the victim, Sarfaraz Syed, was admitted to a private hospital, where he succumbed to bullet wounds during treatment. Over a year ago, the accused had a scuffle with Sarfaraz and his friends, who had badly beaten the accused and had allegedly filmed the act, according to police. However, instead of the girl, the two men arrived at the spot and attacked him with iron pipes. One of them fired two shots at Sarfaraz, and one bullet struck him below the navel and the other on his left shoulder. People in the surrounding area rushed to help Sarfaraz, who was taken to a local hospital, while the men escaped from the spot. When police traced the social media account, they found it was deleted immediately after the attack, realising there was no girl. The victim was attacked over a deep-seated grudge from an old public humiliation and assault. Sawale and Dhivre felt humiliated, but did not register a police complaint and decided to avenge the assault themselves by luring Sarfaraz through a fake social media profile, calling him to a desolate place and killing him. The police will add murder charges against the accused.