Man objects to two men urinating on the roadside, beaten to death

NEW DELHI: Ravinder Kumar thought he was fulfilling a social obligation by asking two men to use the public toilet instead of urinating in the open near the GTB Nagar Metro station on Saturday. He certainly didn’t expect to be beaten to death by a group of 15-20 youngsters in full public view a few hours later.

Police said most of those involved in the murderous assault on the 32-year-old e-rickshaw driver appeared to be Delhi University students.

Recalling the incident, Guddu – another e-rickshaw driver – said the victim was having lunch near the entrance of the metro station’s gate number 4 that day. “Ravinder had barely begun eating when he noticed two students urinating on the roadside, holding beer cans in their hands. They had emerged from a liquor shop.”

When Ravinder asked them to use the public toilet, located a few steps away, the duo began abusing him.

“But there were too many of his fellow-drivers at the spot,” said Guddu. “So they warned Ravinder that they will be back, and left in another e-rickshaw.”

Around 8 pm, they returned with a large group of friends. “While a few were armed with iron knuckles, one came swinging a towel that contained large stones. Without warning, they fell upon Ravinder and thrashed him for two to three minutes. He stumbled and fell into a puddle of dirty water, but their assault didn’t end,” said Manoj, another e-rickshaw driver.

A few in the vicinity tried to stop them, but failed.

“I tried to intervene too, but they began thrashing me instead. I barely managed to escape and call Ravinder’s family,” said Manoj. The attackers fled by the time the victim’s brothers and mother reached the spot.

“Ravinder could hardly talk, but he told me that the students he encountered earlier in the day were among the attackers. We first took him to our house at the nearby Kishore Market to administer first-aid, and then rushed him to the hospital. But he was declared dead on arrival,” Vijender, the victim’s brother, said.

DCP (North-West) Milind Dumbere said the two students leading the attack reportedly went to the Kirori Mal College after the initial squabble.

“We are investigating if they are students of the institute,” he added.

A murder case has been registered, and multiple teams have been deployed to hunt the culprits down. Police also visited the college on Sunday, but to no avail.

“Police have contacted us, and we are assisting them in the investigation. We don’t know if the students in question belong to our institution, or were visiting to take the end-of-semester examinations,” said Dinesh Khattar, the principal of Kirori Mal College.