Delhi road rage: Man beaten to death in front of his children
Tension prevailed in the area as locals protested alleging police inaction in the case.
‘This little girl wants justice for her father’ reads a poster bearing a photograph of Shahnawaz with his daughter. (Source: Express photo by Praveen Khanna)
Barely 50 metres from a police post in Central Delhi’s Turkman Gate, a 40-year-old man was beaten to death by four persons late on Sunday night in what appears to be a case of road rage. Family members kept the victim’s body at the spot, staging a massive sit-in overnight and on Monday and causing huge traffic snarls across Central Delhi all through the day.
Around 300 locals held protests opposite the Delhi Stock Exchange building till Shahnawaz, the deceased, was buried in the nearby cemetery at around 8.30 pm. Around 100 policemen and paramilitary personnel from Chandni Mahal, Chandni Chowk and Daryaganj police stations were deployed at Turkman Gate to keep the irate crowd in control. Overnight, crowds also burnt vehicles near the house of the accused.
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Empty trucks and buses were stationed at the spot where the incident occurred. A group of around 50 women clad in burqas were mourning the death under a makeshift awning held up by vehicles and an electric pole. Shahnawaz’s mother Noorjehan was among the women, recounting the horrific story of the incident as heard from her grandsons, who were with their father when he was killed.
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Noorjehan said that Shahnawaz had dropped his wife and five-year-old daughter Talbiya by his motorcycle to his house in Mata Sundri Road on Sunday night. He then rode back to his parents’ house in Shanker Gali and picked his sons Fahad (12) and Kaif (9). He rode back to drop them off as well. That is when the incident occurred, Noorjehan said.
“My son’s two-wheeler got stuck in traffic at the Turkman Gate at around 11.30 pm. His vehicle hit a stationary car in front. The man at the wheel asked him to back off but my son said there was no room to do so. The man and his father got off the car and got into an argument. Then they started beating him,” she said.
Relatives claimed the two accused began beating Shahnawaz and two of their associates joined them and took turns reigning blows on him.
“They were wearing knuckle dusters. They beat Fahad and Kaif as well and stole money, a watch and a chain off my son. They fled the scene only when he collapsed and could no longer fight back,” Shahnawaz’s brother Waseem, who witnessed the beating, said.
Waseem, who was passing from the same spot after a few minutes of Shahnawaz having left home, saw a crowd and moved in, only to see his brother being beaten by four persons. Waseem identified them as Khalid Ameen, his son Shahdab (both now prime accused), Atif Lala and Waseem (alias Bhura), who joined in the beating.
Waseem said Fahad and Kaif ran to two police constables just a few meters away but they did nothing and turned the children away. “Chandni Mahal police post is a little over a 50 meters from the place where the incident occurred, yet police did not intervene. If they had at least rushed him to hospital on time, my son would have lived,” the mother said. She alleged that the accused are local criminals and everybody is scared of them.
Police seemed to be on the back foot in the whole incident with senior police officers refusing to be quoted on alleged police lapses.
A senior police officer, who claimed he had checked with his policemen for any lapses or negligence on their part and found none, indignantly denied the charge. “Can Delhi Police ever do something like this? Can a policeman turn down somebody in need of help?”
Deputy Commissioner of Police (central) Paramaditya said the police registered a case of murder and sent Shahnawaz’s body for a postmortem examination .
“Waseem (alias Bhura) has been arrested while we are verifying the role of others who are absconding,” he said.
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