‘Cars whizzed by but no one stopped to help us’
AUTO KILLERS Survivor Nafeez said cops reached spot 45 minutes after he made PCR call
4.30am on Friday, 24-year-old Mohd Nafeez was thrown out of a moving auto near Akshardham Mandir in east Delhi after resisting a robbery attempt.
Moments earlier, his brother, Mohd Hafeez, 25, too had been flung out the same auto by the two men trying to rob them.
Shocked initially, Nafeez regained his composure and immediately rushed to the aide of his brother.
“I had heard a loud cry from my brother the moment he was thrown out. I feared that he might have been run over by the auto. So, I started calling out to him. But there was no response,” Nafeez said from LBS Hospital where Hafeez’s body was taken for postmortem.
Hafeez’s head had been crushed when Nafeez reached him. A desperate Nafeez then turned to motorists driving by for help. But his pleas were allegedly met with the same cold response that people in distress in the national capital frequently experience.
“A number of cars whizzed past, but no one stopped. Only sixseven motorists stopped to listen to what had happened. But no one offered help. One car driver even sped away claiming that he would intercept the auto,” said Nafeez.
Nafeez then pulled out his own mobile phone and called the police and his uncle who lives in Ghaziabad. “The police arrived 45 minutes later and took us to a hospital, where my brother was declared brought dead,” said Nafeez.
Hafeez and Nafeez worked at a steel utensils manufacturing unit in Badarpur and earned around Rs 7,000 each. They were returning to Delhi after a visit to Lakhimpur Kheri in UP.
Nafeez said that they got down from the bus around 4am at Shastri Park and flagged down an auto to take them to Badarpur. The auto driver asked for Rs 200.
“The low fare did not strike me as unusual as there was already a passenger in the back seat and the driver said he would pick one more passenger,” said Nafeez.
When the auto reached the Akshardham Flyover, the driver and the passengers allegedly tried to rob the brothers, but faced resistance. “We had our phones, cash and bags containing clothes. How could we have parted with the only belongings we had ,” said Nafeez.
Delhi Police are yet to identify or arrest any of the three accused.