NEW DELHI: A 26-year-old mentally challenged man was lynched by a group of people in northeast Delhi’s Sunder Nagri over the suspicion of him being a thief, a senior police official said on Wednesday. In a purported video of the incident, that surfaced on social media, people could be heard abusing and seen brutally beating a man who is tied to a pole. According to the officer, the incident took place on Tuesday morning at the G4 block of the Sunder Nagri locality.
“A fruit vendor Abdul Wajid (60), a resident of Sunder Nagri, lodged a complaint claiming that his son Isar died after being assaulted by some people over suspicion of theft,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (northeast) Joy Tirkey said.
The victim’s father told the police that when he reached his house on Tuesday evening, he saw his son lying outside, writhing in pain. There were injury marks all over his body. He said his son told him that around 5 pm, some youngsters caught him near G4 block and accused him of stealing. They then tied him to a pole and thrashed him with sticks.“Their neighbour Aamir brought Isar home in a rickshaw and at around 7 pm, he succumbed to injuries. The body was sent to hospital for the autopsy,” the DCP said.
According to the preliminary investigation, the DCP said, the victim was mentally challenged, tied to an electric pole and assaulted by the perpetrators as he failed to give satisfactory answers to their questions. “We are trying to ascertain the sequence of events,” the DCP said. Meanwhile, the police have registered a case of murder under sections 302 (murder) and 34 (act involving two or more persons) of the Indian Penal Code and have detained some people for questioning.
Isar was innocent, says family
The family members of the 26-year-old mentally challenged man refuted all the allegations and said their son was not a thief. “Some are saying he was not speaking, some are calling him a thief. My brother was not a thief. These are just vile allegations. He was not even able to speak properly and explain to them who he was,” the parents of the deceased man said. According to them, their son Isar left home around 6-7 am in the morning when they were all sleeping. “He left home around 6-7 am. We were sleeping at that time when he left. We thought he must be somewhere outside the home only. We hardly knew that he was so brutally beaten by some people,” they said.