Daltonganj: A dispute over sharing a prospective fish catch led to the drowning of a 48-year-old man in Palamu district, police said on Saturday.Dharmendra Ram, 48, Sudesh Bhuiyan, 56, and Ashok Paswan, 46, all residents of Devgan village under Chhaterpur police station, went fishing with a net at Devgan dam around 8 pm on July 31, Chhaterpur SDPO Prashant Kumar said.The three began arguing over how they would divide the catch even before catching any fish. During the scuffle, Paswan and Bhuiyan allegedly pushed Ram into the dam. Ram could not swim back to the bank and drowned, Kumar said.The two men returned home, apparently unaware that Ram had drowned. When they went back to the dam the next day, Paswan entered the water and found Ram’s body. The two panicked and fled, police said.The body was recovered around 3 pm on Aug 1. Ram’s wife, Rani Devi, 33, lodged an FIR naming Paswan and Bhuiyan, as her husband had gone fishing with them.Police arrested the two on Friday. During questioning, they admitted to arguing and jostling with Ram but claimed they did not realise he had fallen into the dam, the SDPO said. They were remanded in judicial custody on Saturday.The case was investigated by a team led by Chhaterpur police station officer in-charge Saurabh Choubey under the SDPO’s supervision.
