A 29-year-old Manipuri man was allegedly beaten to death by a group of five men in a suspected case of road rage in South Delhi's Kotla Mubarakpur area in the wee hours today.
Three of the five attackers have been arrested.
The incident took place at around 3 AM when the deceased, identified as Akha Shaloni, along with two friends, Dihe Kazhiihrii (25), who is also a resident of Manipur and Nagendra Sharma (40), a resident of Bihar, went to Masoodpur Colony to attend a party at a friend's place.
Following the party, they hired an auto to drop Kazhiihrii at his home at Kotla Mubarakpur. When the auto reached near Gurudwara road, a car arrived from behind and started honking indiscriminately.
"The occupants of the car also abused the auto driver, following which an argument ensued between the trio and them. The argument soon turned ugly following which around five men, all of whom were apparently in an inebriated state, alighted from the car and attacked the trio. While Kazhiihrii and Sharma managed to flee, Shaloni was caught by them," said a police official.
"Had Nagendra and I not escaped, we too would have been killed," Kazhiihrii told the police in his statement. He also mentioned that the attack was not racial in nature although the attackers were shouting 'maaro', 'maaro'.
"Kazhiihrii called the police at around 3:30 AM, after which a police team reached the spot and rushed Shaloni, who was unconscious, to All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) trauma centre where doctors declared him brought dead. The death was due to serious head injuries," the official said.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) B S Jaiswal said there was "no provocation" by Shaloni who was living in Munirka in South Delhi and was unemployed.
Three attackers, identified as Sanjay Basoya (24), Shakti Basoya alias Shanky and Rajiv alias Raju (25) were arrested by the police from Garhi area. Efforts are on to nab the other two who are on the run.
Police have recovered the car used by the attackers.
Police seized the CCTV footage from the area which helped police to arrest the three attackers.
