4 more held for Feb 10 murder in Mangolpuri

RINKU SHARMA’S FAMILY HAS ALLEGED THAT HIS KILLERS OFTEN USED TO OBJECT TO HIS ACTIVITIES ASSOCIATED WITH BAJRANG DAL AND VISHWA HINDU PARISHAD

NEW DELHI: Delhi Police on Sunday said they have arrested four more suspects in connection with Rinku Sharma’s murder that took place on the night of February 10 in outer Delhi’s Mangolpuri area.

Senior police officers said that the suspects were arrested with the help of CCTV footage, in which they were all spotted attacking Sharma.

Delhi police had on February 11 already arrested five persons for the murder. Investigators identified Sunday’s four arrested men as Deen Mohammad, 40, Dilshan Mohammad, 22, Fayaiz Alam, 21 and Faizan Alam, 21, all residents of Magolpuri.

Delhi police’s additional public relations officer, Anil Mittal said the arrest was made by a crime branch team. “All the four suspects have been identified with the help of CCTV footage in which they can be seen attacking Sharma,” he said.

Sharma had been murdered on February 10 after he had attended a birthday party with his friends and some residents of his neighbourhood. According to investigators, during the party, a fight started over shutting down of a restaurant between one of Sharma’s friends with another person. During the tiff, Sharma had slapped one of the persons from the other group.

After the party ended, police said, Sharma was caught and thrashed by the members of the other group when he was returning home. When he tried to escape, the men chased Sharma and there stabbed him to death.

The next day, the police had arrested four men for the murder – Mohammad Danish, 36, Mohammad Islam, 45, Zahid, 26, and Mohammad Mehtab, 20.

While Danish and Islam work as tailors, Zahid is studying in third year of his graduation and Mehtab is a student of class 12, police had said.

A day later, police also arrested one Tajuddin, 39, after his involvement also surfaced in the killing.

Sharma’s family, however, later refuted the police’s claims that an argument over shutting down of a restaurant had snowballed into the fight that led to his killing.

They alleged that Sharma’s killers often used to object to his activities associated with Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad,and that they had also fought in August last year on a similar issue.

A day after the murder, BJP MP Hans Raj Hans, Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta and AAP MLA Rakhi Birla visited Sharma’s family. Some leaders also alleged that there was a communal angle to the incident, after which the Delhi police had to deploy paramilitary personnel to maintain law and order in the area.

The police had, however, said that no untoward incident had been reported in the area following the murder.

Sharma, who worked as a lab technician at a hospital, is survived by his parents and two brothers.