2 Delhi auto-rickshaw drivers held for beating to death a man over vehicle theft

Earlier, the police had arrested three other auto-rickshaw drivers —Manjeet Chawla, Abhishek Shukla, Anil Kumar, and Aman — who were part of a gang that forcibly took the victim, Raj Kumar, to the Hanuman Mazdoor Camp in R K Puram and brutally assaulted him. Raj Kumar succumbed to his injuries at Safdarjung Hospital on June 2.

According to the police, Shukla reported the theft of his auto-rickshaw from near Hanuman Mazdoor Camp at R K Puram police station on May 30. Two days later, Chawla, an acquaintance of Shukla, spotted the stolen vehicle being driven by a man later identified as Raj Kumar at a CNG station on Ring Road in Sarojini Nagar.

“When Raj Kumar tried to flee, Chawla, along with other auto-rickshaw drivers, managed to detain him. Chawla then informed Sushil, a cousin of the auto-rickshaw’s owner, who arrived at the scene with Amit and some other men. The group took Raj Kumar to the Hanuman Mazdoor Camp, where he was allegedly beaten severely. After he lost consciousness, the victim was left at the spot,” said an officer.

Later in the day, Raj Kumar’s son was informed, and he shifted his father to Safdarjung Hospital.

According to Amit Goel, Deputy Commissioner of Police, South West, the police arrested Manjeet Chawla, Abhishek Shukla, Anil Kumar, and Aman based on Raj Kumar’s son’s statement and CCTV footage.

“On the basis of the MLC (medico-legal case), information was received at RK Puram police station, and a case was registered under relevant sections of law against unknown persons. The arrested men revealed that Sushil and Amit were also involved in the crime, but both were absconding,” said the DCP.

After Raj Kumar succumbed to injuries on June 2, the police added Section 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Bharatitya Nayaya Sanhita (BNS) to the case and registered a second First Information Report (FIR) under sections 105 and 3(5) (common intention).

The police team subsequently deployed informers, conducted technical and manual surveillance, and carried out field operations to trace the absconding accused, the officer said.

On July 24, the police received a tip-off that the suspects were in RK Puram, and a trap was laid to nab Sushil and Amit. At Amit’s instance, the stolen TSR was also recovered.