KOLKATA (India), March 23: An Indian man beat his teenaged son to death with a cricket bat after he learnt the boy had spent his weekly wages on posters of Indian cricketers, in the eastern metropolis of Kolkata, police said on Sunday.

Kundanlal Tamta, deputy commissioner of Kolkata police, said rickshaw puller Prasanta Hazra was drunk when he hit his son Sushanta with a cricket bat on Saturday night.

Hazra was furious that the 14-year-old Sushanta had spent the money he earned working in a local shop on posters of India’s cricket team on the eve of the World Cup final on Sunday.

Sushanta had also bought garlands to decorate the posters in their small house in a shanty colony, Tamta said.

The boy’s mother, Triloki, who tried to come to his rescue was also beaten unconscious by Hazra, who fled the scene, Tamta added.

Triloki later lodged a complaint with the police against her husband, saying she saw her son lying in a pool of blood when she regained consciousness.

The boy was pronounced dead on arrival at a local hospital.—AFP