Four arrested for killing, dumping victims in drain

NEW DELHI: A man who was dragged out of his home by a mob in front of his wife and children, two brothers who tried to escape a mob on their motorcycle and a car mechanic who left his home to meet his relative were four riot victims whose bodies were dumped in a drain in north-east Delhi’s Bhagirathi Vihar last month, the police said on Thursday. Four men have been arrested for the killings.

A statement by the police identified the arrested men as Pankaj Sharma, Lokesh Kumar Solanki, Sumit and Ankit, but did not give out other details such as age or addresses. An investigator said the involvement of these four men in other riot killings was being probed.

Three days ago, the police had announced the arrest of only one of these men, Lokesh.

Giving out details of the four murders, the police statement said one of the victims was Musharraf, who was dragged out of his Gokalpuri home in front of his wife and children by the rioters. “He was beaten to death and his body was thrown in the drain,” the police said.

Musharraf left behind three minor children and a wife who live on rent. The other victim was Aqil Ahmed, a car mechanic and a father of four. He had left his home in Loni to meet his brotherin-law at New Mustafabad when he went missing. His body was identified by his wife who visited the GTB Hospital mortuary in search of him.

The other two victims were brothers, Amir Ali and Hashim Ali, whose father sent them away to live with their relatives elsewhere in the city when riots first broke out on February 23. Two days later, their father, Babu Khan, thought the situation had normalised and asked them to return home. But as they rode their motorcycle past Gokalpuri and halted briefly to call their brother as they felt unsafe, they were caught by the mob and killed. The police, in their statement, said the two brothers were killed and their bodies dumped in the drain along with their motorcycle, which was first set ablaze.