Five held for attacks on African nationals in south Delhi: Police

Kunal was earlier suspected to be a minor but his actual age was verified after scanning his documents, said a senior officer.

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Police said they have registered another case of alleged physical assault of a brother-sister duo from Cameroon, which took place in the same area. Three separate cases of causing hurt, wrongful restraint and criminal intimidation had been registered earlier.

Police said the arrests have been made in connection with all four cases. While some of the accused are residents of Maidan Garhi, the others are from Rajpur Khurd village.

Police said the first assault occurred Thursday evening when a man was taking his ailing mother to a hospital in his car, which got stuck in a congested lane. “Ahead of him, an African man was playing loud music in his car. When he asked the African national to lower the volume and let his car pass, the latter allegedly refused and said the road was too congested. An argument then broke out between the two,” said an officer.

Another African national, who was passing by in an auto-rickshaw, intervened. A scuffle broke out and the two were beaten up by locals, said police. One of them sustained an injury on his nose. Police said they are still looking into how and why the other incidents took place around the same time in such close proximity.

While the victims alleged they were racially abused and attacked with bats and rods, police denied the claims. Police attributed two of the incidents to a dispute over African nationals playing loud music and the other to a scuffle over drinking in public.