‘Killed over scratch on car’: Family of Ghaziabad road rage victim

The family said Zaid had gone to swim with two minor friends, aged 15 and 16, on a motorcycle, as frequent power cuts had left their home without water. As the boys crossed the Behta Puliya crossing, their motorcycle brushed against a car.

People gather outside Mohammad Zaid’s house in Ghaziabad, on Wednesday. (Express photo by Praveen Khanna)

The occupants of the car got out and slapped all three, his mother, Shakeela, alleged.

“His friends told me they dragged my son into the car, wrenched out the bike keys, and told the boys to follow them. They ran for nearly 20 minutes — about 3 km — and reached the accused’s office, where they saw the parked bike,” she said.

Zaid was beaten up inside the office, allegedly by Rahul and his friend, and left for dead.

Shakeela said the boys were told to take Zaid away. “When they couldn’t lift him, the accused pushed my son with their feet,” she broke down.

Zaid’s aunt alleged that the accused cut the motorcycle’s fuel pipe and threatened the boys, saying they would also be beaten if they named them to the police. “The friends somehow put my unconscious nephew on the bike and dragged it back home,” she said.

They tried to revive him by splashing water on his face and making him drink, but he did not respond.

Shakeela, sitting on a chair, said Zaid was studying and working alongside. “Mera beta bahut doobla-patla aur naazuk tha… Jab maine use dekha, toh har jagah se khoon aa raha tha — naakhun tak se. Uska poora shareer garam ho gaya tha. (My son was very thin and fragile… When I saw him, he was bleeding from everywhere — even from under his fingernails. His entire body was burning hot).”

The family, which has nine children, some of them married, owns five buffaloes and supplies milk to nearby homes. “Zaid helped us after school… he was nearly six feet tall. I used to tell him to stop growing, that he wouldn’t fit in the house,” his mother said, before asking: “If our religion was different, would justice still be delayed?”

Police said during questioning, Rahul claimed he and his friend Anuja Kasana were returning to their office, Manish Properties, in a Baleno car after buying fruits from the Loni T-junction. “He claimed that near the Indraprastha Gas Plant intersection, on the road towards Behta Canal, Zaid, riding a motorcycle, collided with the car,” police said.