Family alleges communal angle; police said argument over eatery turned fatal
A 25-year-old man was allegedly stabbed to death by five men following a quarrel at a birthday party in outer Delhi’s Mangolapuri area. The family of victim, Rinku Sharma, alleged that he was killed over communal angle while police denied the claims and said that they are investigating the incident with all angles. Security in the area was beefed up to maintain law and order situation in the area. Delhi Police teams kept monitoring the situation by drones during the day as tension was palpable in the area.
Police said that the five accused identified as Zahid, Mehtab, Danish, Tassudin and Islam, residents of the Mangolapuri area, have been arrested. Police said that Zahid, Mehtab, Danish and Islam were arrested on Thursday while Tassudin was nabbed on Friday.
Rinku, an activist of BJP’s Yuva Morcha and Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) got into a heated argument with five men at a birthday party on Wednesday night. Police said that the four accused later went to victim’s house and stabbed him with a knife.
“So far, during investigation it has surfaced that quarrel started during a birthday party over shutting down of a restaurant. All persons are known to each other and live in the same locality. Any other motive alluded to this incident is factually wrong,” Delhi Police stated in tweets.
However, Rinku’s brother, Manu Sharma said, “We don't have any food shop. They even fought with us after we went for a donation drive for Ram Mandir on August 5 and since then they wanted to quarrel with us.”
Meanwhile, OP Mishra, the Joint Commissioner of Police appealed to people to avoid rumour-mongering since it is a sensitive issue and said that police teams are investigating the incident while five accused has been arrested.
According to a senior police official, on Wednesday night, when both the victim and accused men were attending the birthday party, an argument broke out between them over their food joints in Rohini.
“They also slapped and threatened each after which they left. The two parties had similar tussles over the same issue sometime back as well. Later, all the five men went to Sharma’s house where he along with his elder brother were already standing outside with sticks in their hands. A scuffle broke out between the two sides again during which the accused stabbed Sharma and fled from the spot,” said the police official.
“Rinku was bleeding profusely and rushed to a nearby hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. During investigation, it emerged that both the parties had opened their respective eateries in nearby areas in Rohini in October last year. But both were incurring losses and had to be closed down. The two parties blamed each other for the losses and often had heated arguments over the issue,” said the police official.
Rinku’s brother, Manu Sharma said that his brother had gone to a birthday party and he was chased back on his return, then dragged outside the house and stabbed.
The kin of the deceased claimed that Rinku had donated blood to the wife of one the accused over an year ago.
The VHP leaders claimed that Sharma was associated with the organisation and was killed because he was collecting donations for Ram Temple at Ayodhya. “We urge the administration to arrest the culprits without delay and ensure strictest punishment to them,” said VHP joint general secretary Surendra Jain.