'Incorrect' to term attack on Assam youth as racist: Bassi

Delhi Police today said it would be "incorrect" to term the attack on a 21-year-old Assamese student at South Delhi's Amar colony as a racial attack even as the victims relatives accused the police of shielding the attackers.
The Guwahati youth, identified as Arbazuddin, who has been living in Delhi for the last two years, was allegedly beaten up by locals in the wee hours of March 5 when he tried to open the lock of a house which was not his own, apparently in an inebriated state, police said.
Police Commissioner BS Bassi said, "We have filed a case on the basis of the victim's statement but the other side says that the victim was trying to break their door lock."

"We are investigating with an open mind but prima facie it is not a racial attack," Bassi said.
However, the victim's uncle Yasmin claimed that he was attacked when he tried to resist and the attackers used to "comment" on him daily by calling him jangli (wild).
"He has undergone surgeries and his condition is critical. It was a case of racial attack. The police was trying to save the attackers," he said.

He has suffered fractures in his limbs and jaw in the incident, police said.
"We got a PCR call around 1:30 AM from locals that they have caught a thief. A team rushed to the spot and took him to the hospital," police had said.

His address was found to be in the same locality. Both the houses were on the first floor and the youth probably went into the wrong house apparently in an inebriated condition, it added.
The CCTV footage of the area is being checked to verify claims of both the parties.