Trainee IPS officer accused of assault in wedding brawl, cross complaints lodged

Vikas Dhayal, a UPSC coach, alleged that on December 6, during a wedding at Mahak Tala Farms, IPS trainee Rahul Balhara struck him on the head with a whiskey glass, causing him to collapse.

Representative image

NEW DELHI: A cross-complaint was filed at Kapashera police station after a heated altercation between a 2023-batch trainee IPS officer and a UPSC coach escalated into a violent incident at a wedding, police said on Sunday. 

Vikas Dhayal, a Rajendra Nagar resident and UPSC coach, alleged that on December 6, during a wedding at Mahak Tala Farms, IPS trainee Rahul Balhara struck him on the head with a whiskey glass, causing him to collapse. Dhayal shared a video purportedly showing the assault, including images of his blood-covered face and clothes.

Expressing his outrage on social media platform X, Dhayal wrote, “This is what one year of IPS training teaches you: getting drunk on power, assaulting people without consequence.” He further alleged that Balhara, after clearing the UPSC exam, engaged in similar violent behaviour.

Despite his complaint to the police, Dhayal claimed no FIR was initially registered. He accused cops of acting only after his social media post went viral. In a subsequent post, he stated, “Delhi Police took no action against Rahul Balhara despite clear CCTV evidence. Instead, they lodged a complaint against me, even though I didn’t touch anyone.”

Dhayal has also been issued a notice by the cops to join the investigation following a complaint by Balhara. Advocates Anshul Kumar and Pranjal, representing Vikas Dhayal, told this newspaper that the police are pressuring Dhayal to withdraw his complaint by implicating four other persons. “We submitted our complaint before Balhara did, yet the police registered Balhara’s complaint first and issued notice to Dayal to join the probe,” said Anshul. 

Anshul also claimed that Balhara and Dhayal had known each other since their college days, and Balhara had allegedly assaulted other people on multiple occasions even before being selected as an IPS officer. 

Police said that no FIR has been registered in the case yet, but an investigation has commenced following complaints from both parties.

“We are reviewing the CCTV footage of the incident. Preliminary information indicates that a dispute occurred between two persons, during which one person struck the other with a glass. We have received complaints from both sides, and both are currently being investigated,” a senior police officer said. 

Last month, in a similar incident in Gurugram, a 28-year-old man lost his life when he and the attacker reportedly had a drunken altercation which led to the deadly assault.