NEW DELHI: In a late night brawl at the heart of the national capital, Connaught Place, a family, including women, were thrashed by a group of nearly two dozen men after an argument escalated between them over honking of vehicle horn.
The police, based on the complaint filed by Advocate Siddharth Kaushik, registered an FIR under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint), 506 (criminal intimidation), 427 (mischief causing damage) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code at the Connaught Place police station.
According to the FIR, accessed by this newspaper, the incident took place in front of Odeon Cinema in D-block, Connaught Place, in the New Delhi district. The complainant, Siddharth Kaushik, resident of Shahdara in north-east Delhi, is a 23-year-old lawyer practising at Karkardooma Court in Shahdara district, was visiting Connaught Place along with his family on the night of December 22.
“Around 11 pm, when we were leaving for our homes, a person named Rohit entered into an argument with us for honking car’s horn. I tried to pacify him, but he started abusing and then fighting with my younger brothers,” Kaushik stated in the FIR.
Minutes after the argument, the alleged suspect Rohit called his associates from ‘Odeon Paanwala’ and around 15-20 people arrived at the scene, armed with wooden sticks and rods and began thrashing Kaushik and his family, including women.
“When my brother fell down and the accused persons were beating him with sticks, my sister tried to intervene in an attempt to save him and laid on my brother. Even then the assailants did not stop and continued thrashing them both. They held my sister’s collar and abused her,” the FIR read.
At this juncture, the cousin brother of the complainant attempted to run away from the scene to call the police but at least 3-4 attackers followed him in a car and tried to bundle him with their car. However, he managed to slip away and hid himself in a parked auto.
“I tried to call the police on my mobile phone but the assailants snatched it from me and smashed it into the ground. Then they started hitting me with sticks and rods, due to which my nose got fractured,” the FIR read further. The injured were taken to Lady Hardinge Medical College and Hospital.
Soon after the incident, the police recieved information about the scuffle from certain sources, following which a sub-inspecter level officer visited the injured at Lady Hardinge hospital, where he spoke to the victims, Siddharth Kaushik and his family, and recorded their statements.
Based on his complaint, the police registered a case and have begun probing the matter. Meanwhile, in view of Christmas and New Year celebrations, the police have beefed security measures in Connaught Place to avoid untoward incidents.