5 main accused, including a woman, arrested for murder
A 40-year-old dentist was beaten to death allegedly by a group of about dozen people at about 12.35 am on Thursday at his Dhauli Piao residence in West Delhi. The city police has arrested five main accused, identified as Naseer, his mother Maesar, Aamir, Gopal and Amir, and also apprehended four juveniles. Two more persons, linked to the gruesome incident, have been identified, but are absconding.
The incident took place when dentist Pankaj Narang was playing cricket with his eight-year-old son and nephew on the balcony of their first floor house, a police officer said. Narang’s house is located right opposite the Unity Mall and the Janakpuri West Metro station. The ground floor is reportedly rented to a branch of the State Bank of India.
“Narang’s wife Upma is also a dentist and they ran a clinic, named Narang Clinic, in Tilak Nagar,” according to Sachin Kapoor, owner of an English coaching institute next to the victim’s house. “His sister, brother-in-law and their son had come to his place for Holi celebrations,” he added.
“After India defeated Bangladesh by one run in the World T20 match, on his son’s insistence, Narang took his son and nephew to the balcony to play underhand cricket,” a police source told this newspaper.
The source said, while playing cricket, the ball allegedly hit two men who were passing by their house on a motorcycle. Narang asked his son to get the ball from downstairs, but when he went down to get it, the two men abused him. This angered Narang, who went down and started scolding the two for their misbehaviour. This led to a scuffle between the doctor and the men. “Narang then took the key out of their bike and said that he would call the police,” the source said.
After the scuffle, the two men left the spot, abandoning their motorcycle at the spot. They, however, returned with at least 10 other people in a few minutes and the group allegedly attacked the doctor with bats, sticks and rods and dragged him to some distance from his house.
They allegedly severely thrashed the doctor’s brother-in-law too when he came to save Narang, the police said.
Locals allege that they informed the police at about 12.50 am. By the time the police reached the spot, the accused had reportedly fled from the crime scene. A neighbour claimed that Narang’s family rushed him to the Mata Chanan Devi Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. His brother-in-law was also taken to the same hospital.
The doctors are said to have told the police that Narang had received a deep wound on his cranium, the part of the skull enclosing the brain. He is said to have died due to a fracture in the cranium.
“We registered a case of murder, attempt to murder and rioting against several persons, and formed a team to nab the accused at the earliest. We also obtained CCTV footage from nearby premises which helped us ascertaining identity of the accused,” DCP (West) Pushpendra Kumar said. After a search operation, eight persons were apprehended on Thursday.
