Battered for taking on mafia

NEW DELHI: Ten days after MCD engineer Ansar Alam was brutally beaten up by goons, an advocate was thrashed by unidentified men for launching a campaign against illegal construction.
The lawyer, SK Sharma, 38, had recently filed a petition in the Delhi high court seeking demolition of encroachments in the Chirag Dilli area. The advocate claimed he had been getting threat calls for the past few weeks.
“Delhi Police and MCD have not taken action against the builder mafia, who are carrying out illegal construction in the area. People are adding new floors without permission,” said Sharma.
Sharma was returning home after a hearing at the Saket court when four persons attacked him near Bhagat Singh College. “They came in a car. I had stopped at a crossing near the college when they attacked me with baseball sticks. Thankfully, I was wearing a helmet, so I did not suffer head injuries,” said Sharma. Sharma claimed that no one came to his rescue when he was being assaulted. An injured Sharma went to Bhagat Singh College for aid, where his brother is a lecturer. “The college staff called the police. I was taken to AIIMS Trauma Centre in a PCR van,” said Sharma, who suffered fractures in his left leg and hand.
After treatment, his family members and friends rushed him to the high court. A bench of Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw directed the Delhi Police standing counsel Pawan Sharma to ensure that a case under proper penal provisions is registered against the land mafia, allegedly involved in beating up a lawyer. Sharma was brought to the court on a stretcher with one of his legs in cast and assault marks on his body.
The victim’s mother, accompanied by her younger son Rajeev, told the bench that her elder son was severely beaten up near Bhagat Singh College by “goons” against whom he has been fighting a property case in a trial court.
She told HC that though her son sustained grievous injuries, the Malviya Nagar police had lodged an FIR under sections entailing mild penal provisions. She accused the police of being hand-in-glove with the offenders. The FIR should have been lodged on more stringent charges like attempt to murder (Section 307 of IPC) and causing grievous injury (326), but police deliberately watered down the charges, his family members said. The family also alleged that no arrest has been made so far despite the victim having named two of his assailants.
On the victim’s plea, the high court had ordered the Malviya Nagar police to provide protection to him in 2010. However, nothing had been done so far, said his family members.
After the court’s intervention, the case was transferred to the crime branch of Delhi Police for further investigations. Offences like attempt to commit culpable homicide and causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons under Sections 308 and 326 of the IPC have been acknowledged and added to the FIR.