5 held after man hurt during scuffle in outer Delhi: Police

The police said they warned the complainant against “inciting communal hatred” after the incident.

Five people have been arrested after a scuffle between two groups left a man hurt in northwest Delhi’s Sultanpuri earlier this week, even as the police warned the complainant against “inciting communal hatred” after the incident.

Representative Image

The incident took place early on Wednesday morning, the police said, over after an argument broke out between Prem Singh (48), who was heading home from work, and Tahir Husain, who was driving a goods vehicle, as both tried to get through a narrow lane in the neighbourhood.

Singh, the complainant, who operates a street-side amusement ride near the area’s Jama Masjid, told the police that he was heading home from work with a worker and his wares, and was trying to cross a lane in Sultanpuri’s I-Block, when a good vehicle carrying fish entered from the opposite direction.

The incident took place around 1.30am on July 13.

According to the police, the two men began arguing about who would cross over first, a confrontation that escalated when others joined in.

“Four more people, Sabir, Mujaffar, Juned Ansari and Rahish, joined Husain, while Singh called his brother, Raj Bahadur,” said deputy commissioner of police (outer Delhi) Sameer Sharma.

Singh suffered injuries to his head in the scuffle, the police said, adding that they were taken to a nearby hospital to be treated. In the meanwhile, the five men from the other group were detained. None of them sustained any significant injuries, the police said.

However, before being taken to the hospital, and even as a police officer was at the spot, Singh and his brother started screaming that he had been “attacked by Muslims” and asked Hindus to “wake up”. A video of this went viral on social media on Saturday.

The police said they warned Singh and his brother against communalising the incident, both at the spot as well as after the two recovered after treatment.

“The video inciting communal hatred was recorded by the complainant party,” a police officer aware of the matter said. To be sure, it is unclear who took the video.

Later that morning, when Singh recovered, his statement was recorded and a case under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint), 506 (criminal intimidation), 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code was registered. The five detained men were, subsequently, arrested.

DCP Sharma said Singh met him and they were pacified and warned not to give a communal colour to petty issues.