KARACHI, Aug 5: The mystery surrounding the death of a Ukrainian field worker at a project of the Pakistan Steel Mills was solved on Tuesday when a compatriot of the victim confessed to having killed the 30-year-old man after a brawl.The Steel Town police said they had arrested Kuzin Volodymyr, son of Yakov, booked for stabbing to death Dyatlov Yuriy under Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Victim Yuriy, whose name inadvertently appeared as Tayllau Yori in our yesterday’s report, had died from a stab wound to the abdomen in mysterious circumstances on Sunday while being operated upon at the Liaquat National Hospital.

Both the victim and the suspect were employees of the Concord Industrial Project Ltd, a contracting firm involved in the repairs of a furnace at the mills. They lived in the flats in a protected section of the Steel Mills Township.

The police said the case against the suspect was registered on the complaint of the project director, Yashkov Volodymyr, also a Ukrainian, who had earlier given an undertaking to the police that he did not want any legal proceedings into the matter as “it was a case of accidental death”.

The victim, who lived in apartment No 6 of D-2 block of the Steet Mills Township, died from the wound at the hospital around 11pm and the project director obtained from the LNH a certificate of an accidental death caused by a stab wound.

According to ASI Haji Habib, the inquest officer, he was told through an interpreter that the victim was cutting vegetables in the kitchen when he slipped with the knife that pierced his abdomen.

The senior superintendent of police of investigation, east, said the inquest officer reached the Liaquat National Hospital to record the statement of the injured, but he had died during the surgery.

He said the police also reached the spot and interviewed some of the victim’s colleagues and they concluded that it was not a case of accidental death.

The SSP said the police asked the victim’s colleagues to visit the police station in connection with the investigation.

Later, he said, Yashkov Volodymyr reported to the police in a written application for lodging an FIR against the suspect that Kuzin, a co-worker, had confessed to having stabbed the victim.

Inspector Shaukat Mallan, the investigation officer, told Dawn that the police had produced the suspect before a judicial magistrate, who remanded him in police custody for interrogation.

He said the body was shifted on Tuesday to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for an autopsy, which was required for pressing murder charges against the suspect in the court of law.

The investigation officer said the police also visited the spot and it was found that the victim was killed in the apartment of the suspect. “We have also seized the knife the suspect used to stab the victim,” he added.

He said the preliminary investigation revealed that the victim and the suspect were heavily drunk and they traded expletives before the suspect stabbed the victim.

The inspector said the suspect confessed that he stabbed the victim after a scuffle. “We are still trying to ascertain the bone of contention between the two co-workers,” he added.