A drunken brawl in front of Sarat Bose Road post office ended in the death of a 32-year-old man around 10.30pm on Saturday.

The road, lined with several restaurants and cafes and buzzing till late hours, was deserted on Saturday night as rain and wind triggered by Cyclone Bulbul kept most Calcuttans indoors.

Drunken brawls are common on the stretch, some residents have alleged.

Saturday’s brawl took place right in front of a building near the crossing of Sarat Bose Road and Raja Basanta Roy Road that houses the post office and the postal department’s officers’ quarters.

Manoj Baitha, 32, had been drinking with Lal Babu Sadai, 30, who works at a roadside eatery in front of the post office, when the two got into an argument, a police officer said. Sadai ended up hitting Baitha with a mortar and pestle (shil nora).

Baitha, who ironed clothes for a living, died on the spot, the police suspect. He was taken to a hospital, where doctors declared him dead.

Baitha’s roadside ironing shop, which he took over after the owner left for his Bihar home a month ago, was around 400 metres from the eatery.

Sadai, who has his roots in Bihar’s Madhuban district, admitted to killing Baitha, who was from Bihar’s Chapra district, the police said.

“We have arrested the accused and he has confessed to t,he murder,” a senior officer at Lalbazar, the headquarters of Calcutta police, said.

The Tollygunge police station received a call around 10.35pm on Saturday that a man was lying in a pool of blood on Sarat Bose Road. “When officers reached the spot, eyewitnesses narrated the incident,” the senior officer said. The stretch usually buzzes with diners at that time, especially on weekends, but Saturday was unusually quiet because of Cyclone Bulbul.

Some residents, who didn’t want to be named, said drunken brawls were common in the area but the police never took action. “Five or six youths get together and drink here regularly. If we say anything, they threaten to kill us,” said a resident.

An officer of Tollygunge police station said they have never received any complaint. “We will probe the allegation,” he said.