Delhi: 24-year-old beaten to death over suspicion of theft

NEW DELHI: A 24-year-old man was allegedly thrashed to death on the suspicion of theft in southwest Delhi’s Uttam Nagar on Saturday morning. The victim and two others were tied to a pole and thrashed for hours by four men.
The victim, Avinash, was an autorickshaw driver. A case has been registered at Uttam Nagar police station. The other two injured men, Munnipal and Suraj Yadav, are being treated at a nearby hospital.

A preliminary probe has revealed that a group of men caught the trio near Uttam Nagar bus terminal early on Saturday and accused them of breaking into a house and ferrying away the stolen goods in an autorickshaw.
Rather than calling the cops, the men took the three friends to Mohan Garden and tied them to a pole. They were beaten for at least five hours before being taken to a hospital. Avinash died during treatment due to severe injuries on his head and other vital organs, while the other two men have been admitted in a critical condition.
Investigating officers didn’t find any previous criminal record of the victim and are verifying the accusations made against him and the other two victims.
Avinash’s mother, Kusum Lata (48), said that her son used to drive the autorickshaw at night. Early on Saturday, she received a phone call from Avinash’s number. When she answered it, someone else asked her to come to a certain place.
When she and her husband, Vinod Kumar, went to the spot, they found a crowd of at least 250 people surrounding her son and his friends tied to the pole and being thrashed with sticks. The three men were allegedly forced to walk carrying car batteries which they had allegedly stolen.
“People were abusing them and calling them thieves. Avinash saw me and cried for help. When I tried to intervene, the crowd pushed me back. This continued for at least an hour,” she said. When her husband tried to call the police, his mobile phone was snatched by someone in the crowd. Nobody came to their son’s rescue and, instead, people made videos on their mobile phones.
The parents of the victim said that they were soon hounded away. When they went back to the spot at 8.30am on Saturday, they were told that police had taken the three men to a hospital.
The couple has alleged negligence on the part of police. They claimed that their son was thrashed for five hours in public, but the cops didn’t even come to know of the incident. Their timely intervention could have saved Avinash. The victim is survived by his parents, wife and two children. They are natives of Shahjahanpur district in Uttar Pradesh.