DJ KILLS DELHI MAN WHO ASKED HIM TO PLAY A PUNJABI SONG IN A PUB
Victim had come to the pub for b’day bash
NEW DELHI: A disk jockey (DJ) stabbed to death a 28-year-old man at a bar in west Delhi’s Punjabi Bagh on Sunday night during a brawl over the music.
Police identified the suspect as Deepak Bisht, who was performing at Raftaar pub. Two friends of the victim, gym owner Vijaydeep Singh, were also injured, among them a woman who was hit on the head with a beer bottle.
“After the murder, Bisht hid at the bar itself until we caught him,” said the Vijay Kumar, deputy commissioner of police (west).
The victim and his friends had gone to the bar to celebrate a birthday. “We had walked in around 8 pm and were having fun drinking and dancing. But the DJ played the same Hindi songs over and over again. So, we requested the DJ to play some Punjabi songs, but he refused to oblige,” said Puneet Bhatia, Singh’s business partner who was among the group.
As the evening came to a close, the group reiterated its demand for a Punjabi song to be the last one to be played. “I tried to change the song from the playlist in the DJ’s laptop. He pushed me and grabbed my cap, leaving me with a dishevelled hair. Soon, bouncers began manhandling me,” said Tejinder, another member of Singh’s group. The fight escalated in moments, DCP Kumar said, prompting Singh to join in.
An investigator said CCTV footage showed Bisht dashing towards the kitchen and returning with a long knife. He is seen first stabbing one of the guests in the stomach before cutting Vijaydeep’s wrist.
“After slashing Vijaydeep’s wrist, the DJ stabbed him in his right lower abdomen and twisted the knife, bringing out his intestines. Vijaydeep collapsed on the floor,” said Bhatia, adding that the bar staff responded to the commotion by switching off the lights and the elevator.
“We had to drag a bleeding and unconscious Vijaydeep down the stairs. None of the bar officials helped us,” he added. It was at this time that Harmeet Kaur, the wife of the man whose birthday the group was out to celebrate, was hit on the head with a beer bottle.
“We have not booked anyone else as there are no formal complaints of other assaults,” the DCP added.
‘SOFT-SPOKEN’ DJ WIELDED KNIFE OUT OF PANIC, REGRETS
NEW DELHI: At the centre of the murderous quarrel were a “mild-mannered and shy” gym owner and a “soft-spoken” disc jockey, said their families.
By the time the brawl ended, the gym owner was dead and the DJ hiding behind the bar with tears in his eyes and “regret” in his heart.
For the family of DJ Deepak Bisht, he was the softest man they knew. “He would refuse to kill even a mosquito if we asked him to. If anything, he acted in self-defence,” said Bisht’s recently married sister after hugging him at the Punjabi Bagh police station on Monday.
Bisht, 27, was caught from the pub itself in the early hours of Monday.
“He was hiding in the pub when we traced him,” said Vijay Kumar, deputy commissioner of police (west). “He has been crying throughout his interrogation,” the DCP added.
Another investigator said Bisht had thrown his knife away soon after the murder before hiding.
“It took us a few hours to trace the murder weapon. Bisht was so shocked by what he had done that he couldn’t remember the sequence of events,” said the investigator.
The officer said that Bisht confessed to killing the guest, but said he acted out of panic on being “attacked” by the guests who had already smashed his laptop. He did not have a criminal background, said police.
A native of Uttarakhand, Bisht lived with his parents in north Delhi’s Sant Nagar.
“He loved music since childhood and chose a career that allowed him to remain connected to music forever. He worked at a pub in Gurgaon, but did not like the crowd. So, he took up the job with the bar in Punjabi Bagh in January. He knew the taste of the guests, but it is not possible to always accommodate everyone’s demands,” said Bisht’s uncle, who did not identify himself.
At Raftaar: The High Speed Lounge & Bar where the murder took place, entry was restricted for the media and the owners were not reachable over phone. But a guard deployed there said that guests often turned violent in the last hour of the closing.
“People are heavily drunk at that time, so bar owners play safe and try to wrap up the music by 11.30 pm,” said the guard.