2 men assaulted by neighbour over parking dispute in west Delhi

An FIR on charges of causing grievous hurt and other relevant sections has been registered, police said

A 34-year-old man and his neighbour were allegedly beaten up by a resident of their building and his friends over a parking dispute in Subhash Nagar, west Delhi on the night of August 20, police said, adding that three men have been arrested and one is on the run.

The victims were identified as Ramit Malhotra, a manager with a private bank, and Sandeep Kumar. (Representational image)

The victims were identified as Ramit Malhotra, a manager with a private bank, and Sandeep Kumar, said deputy commissioner of police (west) Vichitra Veer.

The prime accused was identified as Sahaj Singh, 22, who works in a private real estate company in Noida and is the victims’ neighbour. The other accused were identified as Singh’s friends Amandeep Singh, 32, who runs a private business of water purifiers, Hashmeet Singh, 27, who runs a mobile phone shop, and Sachin (one name), who is on the run.

Police said that the altercation began at 9.30 pm when Malhotra and his wife, Ishita Khullar, reached home but were unable to park their car because their neighbour Wazir Singh’s car was parked incorrectly. They asked Wazir to move his car and Wazir complied.

Police said that while the matter appeared to have been resolved after Wazir moved his car, it flared up again when Wazir’s son, Sahaj Singh, arrived later and began arguing with Malhotra, and allegedly summoned three of his friends - Amandeep, Hashmeet and Sachin, to the spot, police said, adding that the exchange quickly turned physical .

“The men allegedly assaulted Malhotra. Sandeep, who tried to intervene, was also assaulted by the accused. Both were injured,” a senior police officer said. The accused also received minor injuries and were treated at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, police said.

An FIR on charges of causing grievous hurt and other relevant sections has been registered at Rajouri Garden police station and further investigation is underway, police said.

In a similar incident earlier in August, a 42-year-old man was stabbed to death allegedly by two brothers outside his home in Bhogal, south-east Delhi after an argument over a parked scooter. The victim, Asif Qureshi — whose family runs several restaurants in Nizamuddin West — was a cousin of Bollywood actor Huma Qureshi.

Delhi has more than 20 million residents and has 8.8 million registered vehicles. Together, the math adds up to one big parking problem. On ground this gap in demand and supply translates to people parking on roads, pavements and fights for limited parking spaces are frequent. MCD was expected to create Parking Management Area Plans (PMAP) for residential and commercial area under ‘Delhi Maintenance and Management of Parking Places Rules’ in September 2019 and as per Delhi masterplan, but these plans have not been made.