Man dies as wall falls on him

Singh was struck inside the car that was badly damaged. Some locals rescued him and called the police control room. The taxi driver was rushed to AIIMS where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.

A 52-year-old taxi driver was killed after a wall collapsed and fell on his cab in south Delhi’s Srinivaspuri on Saturday morning.

Police said the wall measuring 65 feet was on a Delhi Jal Board property. Four more cars parked near the wall were damaged.

A senior police officer said the taxi driver, Hardeep Singh from Ropar in Punjab, had parked his taxi near the wall. He was cleaning his taxi from inside when the wall collapsed and fell on it and a few more parked cars.

“Singh was struck inside the car that was badly damaged. Some locals rescued him and called the police control room. The taxi driver was rushed to AIIMS Trauma Centre where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival,” said the officer.

Romil Baaniya, deputy commissioner of police (southeast district), said a case of death due to negligence was registered at the Amar Colony police station. The family members of Singh were informed about his death. The body was preserved in the hospital mortuary. HTC

The cattle traders alleged that the people pinned them down on the road and attacked them with leather belts, sticks and stones. The mob then let loose the livestock.

The traders said the people took away the cattle. But police rescued all the “stolen” animals, barring three calves.

“We have identified some of the attackers,” deputy commissioner of police (outer) MN Tiwari said and promised “harshest of punishments” to the culprits.

The victims suffered wounds on their faces and hands. One of them, 40-year-old Ali Jaan, has fractured his arms.

Shokin, a trader ferrying 17 calves with brother Dilshad and a nephew, said the attack began minutes after a policemen stopped their vehicle and asked them to show documents for transporting cattle.

“When we said we will show them later, he insisted on looking at them right away.”

Last month, the Centre brought in new rules prohibiting sale of cows and buffaloes for slaughter, which activists said would encourage vigilante groups to target those involved in legal trade.

Moments later, about four men allegedly reached the spot and the constable moved away. They pulled Shokin, his brother and the nephew out of the vehicle and thrashed them.

“They accused us of stealing cows and buffaloes for illegal slaughterhouses,” he said.

The group swelled soon after and they stopped the other vehicles. Some of the drivers and traders managed to escape the attack.

Shokin and the victims called police for help. But the first police car allegedly came two hours later.

Police officer Tiwari promised to identify the constable that stopped the first vehicle. “We will certainly not defend anyone, be it a policeman or a civilian,” he said.

Unconfirmed reports suggest the attack was triggered by an incident of road rage after a car grazed buffalo calves that were sticking their heads out of Shokin’s pickup van. The police FIR didn’t mention this, though.

The attack follows the fatal stabbing of Muslim teenager Junaid Khan on a suburban train in Haryana’s Ballabhgarh on June 22 and back-to-back lynching of cattle traders in Jharkhand by so-called cow vigilantes.

Several people, most of them Muslims, have been killed across the country by vigilantes that have sprung up to protect cows, an animal considered sacred in Hinduism.

Prime Minister Modi has warned twice — once last year — against “gau rakhaks” turning into lynch mobs. But critics say the government has done little to reign in these groups.

The investigators refused to share any more details other than the fact that the suspect is from Haryana’s Palwal district, close to the place the Khan brothers were attacked by a lynch mob after an altercation over seats.

The man — five-feet-six-inches tall and muscular, according to the police sketch drawn from Junaid’s brother’s account — carried a reward of ₹2 lakh on his head. He was part of the mob that attacked Junaid, his two brothers – Mohammad Hashim and Shaqir Khan — and cousin Mobin.

They allegedly called them “beef-eaters” and “anti-nationals,” and flung their skullcaps off their heads.

Investigators made the sketch of the main suspect from Hashim’s description of the man.

“He had a very nice built, like that of a person who goes to the gym every day. He had a heavy voice and was talking in Haryanvi,” Hashim said.

“He was on killer rage. He butchered my brother and then came for us. His associates held us by our arms. I can never forget his face and will identify him the moment I see him.”

Police arrested five people after the attack. But pressure mounted on them to catch the main suspect amid public protests and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s warning this June against mob attacks on cattle traders, beef-eaters and dairy farmers, saying killing people in the name of protecting cows is unacceptable.

THE INVESTIGATORS REFUSED TO SHARE ANY MORE DETAILS EXCEPT THAT THE SUSPECT IS FROM HARYANA’S PALWAL DISTRICT