Two days after a 42-year-old partially disabled powerlifter Anil Sharma was allegedly beaten up by a group of seven people, including his friend in central Delhi's Paharganj, police on Friday arrested one of the accused — identified as Ashwani, a friend of the victim. Anil — beaten mercilessly — is admitted at BlK hospital and his condition is stated to be highly critical with one of his kidneys and pancreas damaged. Anil is still unfit to record a statement.
Police teams are working on the leads to arrest other accused people who are on the run.
Initial probe into the case revealed that Anil and Ashwani were friends for a long time and on the night of July 21, both entered into an argument after consuming liquor. After that Anil, who runs an eatery shop in Hanuman Mandir, along with two of his friends, Mohit Chand and Mohit, went to have dinner at a restaurant in Paharganj, said police, adding that Ashwani called his aides and planned an attack on Anil.
Oblivious of their conspiracy, Anil stopped his car, while on his way back home, and stepped out to make a phone call, said police. At that point, he was attacked by seven people including another friend of Sharma identified as Golu. The group allegedly thrashed Anil and assaulted him with sticks and stones, said police. They even attacked his friends and damaged the car. Police suspect personal enmity to be the reason behind the attack.
After the incident took place, police had registered a case under Section 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) but on Thursday police added Section 307 (Attempt to murder) of the IPC to the case.