60-yr-old beaten to death in Nagpada

Ansari, father of eight children, was a resident of the 100-odd year-old 118 Gol Darwaza Chawl in Kamathipura since his birth. He was an embroidery worker by profession. Eyewitnesses said Ansari had just returned home after offering namaz at around 4.25 pm on Monday. His daughter went to the two feet extended make-shift roof of the chawl with a cup of tea.

No sooner was his daughter seen on the roof, than some miscreants threw stones at a tree adjoining their house.

When an irate Ansari took objection to this, his neighbour Safiq Ahmed Abdul Qureshi struck him hard on the head repeatedly with a heavy stick, causing serious injuries to his skull. Ansari was also pushed from the roof and Safiq jumped upon him from a height of about 15 ft.

Another neighbour added that even as Safiq was brutally hitting the old man, his elder brother Ibrahim alias Abrar kept shouting that Ansari `should not be spared’.

The third brother Iqbal also joined in the melee, said the neighbour who refused to be named.

The chawl residents also told Express Newsline the trio prevented a neighbour from calling a doctor to attend to the injured person. Ansari was ultimately admitted to the intensive care unit of J J Hospital. He succumbed to his injuries early this morning, said inspector Shamsher Khan Pathan.

Neighbours added that the three accused, who were dealing in scrap, had unleashed a reign of terror in the 60-room chawl. They indulged in drug-trafficking and consumed liquor openly in the chawl with brazenness. “Ansari had actually become a thorn in their way, as he had raised objections to their anti-social activities in the chawl," said a neighbour, under conditions of anonymity. Even as police investigations into the case are in progress, neighbours further alleged that on August 10, 1994, the three Qureshi brothers had abducted another scrap dealer and beat him up seriously. After interrogations of the trio, assistant police inspector Vijay Salaskarof the Nagpada police station confirmed that Ibrahim had earlier been arrested in connection with a drug trafficking case in 1987.