A 26-year-old youth was murdered with a sharp instrument in East Midnapore’s Chandipur early on Sunday by his younger brother after he had reportedly refused the latter’s demand for money for online games on his mobile phone for several days.

The assailant then apparently poisoned himself at a nearby field and died at hospital on Sunday morning.

Neighbours said Suryakanta Mondal, formerly employed as a godown assistant in Sealdah, had taken refuge at a cousin’s home earlier last week after his younger brother Chandrakanta had “terrorised” him for money.

“We all knew Chandrakanta as an unfortunate example of a wayward youth. He was unstable, unemployed and frittered away money on online gaming,” said a neighbour, adding that Chandrakanta was “addicted” to an online wartime role-playing game on his phone.

The incident occurred at Sultanpur village, where Suryakanta had recently returned on break from Calcutta and where Chandrakanta formerly worked as a mechanic. On Saturday, Chandrakanta also struck his mother on the head during the scuffle with his elder brother.

The neighbours said several screams were heard over a period of 30 minutes and aside from the fatal outcome for both the brothers, their mother received 12 stitches and survived. She was admitted to Tamluk district hospital as of Sunday.

Neighbours recovered Chandrakanta’s body from near a village road several hours after the incident with a bottle of poison and his bicycle by his side.“Chandrakanta used to ask his brother and mother for money repeatedly,” said cousin and neighbour Subhajit Ghatak.

Local panchayat member Ranjan Mondal said the village was “aware of Chandrakanta’s behaviour” but expressed his “utter shock” at Sunday’s incident.

“We could have never imagined this outcome,” he said.

Tamluk subdivisional police officer Atish Biswas said officials would speak with the deceased’s mother for further details when she regained consciousness.