Three persons have been arrested for allegedly beating an Air Force personnel from West Bengal at south Delhi’s Vasant Gaon area on Friday. The three accused arrested so far have been identified as Sunny (20), Gaurav (20) and Jagran (20). They have been booked under Section 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 341 (wrongful restraint) of the Indian Penal Code at Vasant Vihar Police Station.
The victim, lobsang Sherpa, belongs to Darjeeling. He is a sepoy (air soldier) posted at the Air Force base in West Bengal and presently attached temporarily to the Air Force Station in New Delhi’s Race Course. He has been living at a rented accommodation in Vasant Gaon for the past one month.
The incident was reported on Thursday evening when Sherpa went to a local saloon for a haircut. He had his earphones plugged in and a local approached him and asked him to stop the music. “When I asked him why, he used an offensive word. And then when I told him not to use such words, he turned aggressive — leading to an altercation — and then left the saloon,” Sherpa told police.
Sherpa further said that in a few minutes, around 10 persons gathered outside the saloon. He said he knew some of them by their faces, who had often passed racial remarks. The barber suggested him an alternate exit to avoid the group, but they held him by then and started thrashing him, he said.
By the time a crowd gathered around, the attackers dispersed and fled the scene. locals called up the police control room and Sherpa was rushed to AIIMS Trauma Center. He received severe injuries on his head, neck and back.
“It was an unprovoked attack by persons who bear a grudge — which can’t be backed by any logic — against people like us who are not from the ‘mainland’,” Sherpa added.
Sherpa, who had to be given 10 stitches for the wound on his head, was discharged from the hospital after his condition was reported stable.