Delhi: Specially-abled man beaten to death on suspicion of theft; 7 arrested

Seven people including a juvenile have been arrested on charges of beating a 26-year-old specially-abled man to death after tying him to an electricity pole on suspicion of theft, in Delhi’s Sunder Nagri.

Police on Wednesday (September 27) identified the accused as Kamal (23), Manoj (19), Kishan (19), Pappu (24), Lucky (19), all residents of Sunder Nagri, and Yunus (20), a resident of Garima Garden in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh.

The incident took place on Tuesday morning and the victim succumbed to the injuries later in the day.

Israr’s family told Hindustan Times that he was killed for taking a banana from a Ganesh Chaturthi pandal in Nand Nagri, but police have not confirmed the same.

A purported video of the incident that was widely circulated on social media shows the victim, identified as Israr Wahid, tied to an electricity pole, with people beating him up with sticks. A man is heard saying "don't beat him" but the others keep thrashing him even as he pleads for mercy. The attackers are also heard hurling abuses at the victim.

The victim was specially-abled, Deputy Commissioner of Police (northeast) Joy Tirkey said.

“When he failed to answer the questions of local residents, they tied him to a pole and thrashed him with sticks," he added.

A case was lodged on the complaint of Israr’s father Abdul Wajid.

“According to Wajid, when he went home around 6.30 pm on Tuesday, he saw his son lying outside and groaning in pain. There were injury marks all over his body,” the DCP said.

It has been alleged that Israr told his father that around 5 am, some men caught hold of him near block G4 and accused him of stealing. They then tied him to a pole and thrashed him with sticks. Their neighbour, Aamir, brought Israr home in a rickshaw at around 3 pm. The victim succumbed to the injuries at around 7 pm and his father made a PCR call at around 10:45 pm, the DCP said.

The accused have told police that around 5 am, they saw Israr lurking around the area and thought he was a thief. They started asking him questions but he was unable to give proper answers. The accused then tied him up to an electric pole and thrashed him, the DCP said.

The post-mortem examination of the victim was conducted at the Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital on Wednesday. The doctors found blunt-force injuries all over the body. The cause of death was shock and haemorrhage, police said. The role of some other suspects is being ascertained, police said, adding that further investigation is on.