Call centre employee killed in road rage outside liquor shop in east Delhi

The victim, Nikhil Kumar Sharma, was stabbed in his chest with a customised sharp and pointed weapon fitted in a pen that was recovered from the crime scene, police said.

A 21-year-old private call centre employee was killed after he was stabbed by at least two unidentified men, who also assaulted his friend outside a liquor shop at Samaspur village, near Mother Dairy in east Delhi on Sunday evening in an alleged case of ‘road rage’, police said on Monday.

Call centre employee killed in road rage outside liquor shop in east Delhi. (HT photo)

The victim, Nikhil Kumar Sharma, was stabbed in his chest with a customised sharp and pointed weapon fitted in a pen that was recovered from the crime scene, police said. The attackers fled the crime scene even as the crime was captured on a CCTV camera installed at the liquor shop. Investigators said nearly 12-15 people were present at the spot when the murder took place.

“Two men, one of them wearing a red t-shirt, is seen in the video clip fighting with Sharma and his friend Sunny alias Ashu. The stabbing, however, is not visible in the footage. The footage shows Sunny throwing a beer bottle at the other suspect and then both of them assaulting each other. We are trying to identify and nab the suspects with the help of the video footage and manual intelligence gathering,” said a police officer, associated with the probe, requesting anonymity.

Nikhil lived with his parents, Manoj Sharma and Sunita Sharma, and 24-year-old sister, Payal in east Delhi’s Patparganj village. The family originally belongs to Purnea district in Bihar and had moved to Delhi in 2007 for livelihood. Sharma worked in a private call centre operating from a building near Mother Dairy. As Sunday was his weekly off, he along with his friend Sunny walked to a nearby liquor shop to buy beer bottles.

Around 7.30pm, the two were walking on a road about 20 metres away from the liquor shop, when a scooter coming from behind brushed past Sunny’s leg. Sharma asked the rider to drive carefully. The started hurling abuses at them, leading to an argument between them, the officer said.

“Another video clip from a CCTV camera installed at a nearby shop shows the scooter rider speaking with someone over his cellphone after the altercation. During that time, Sharma and Sunny were standing outside the liquor shop to buy beer bottles. Within five minutes a man in a red t-shirt arrived and entered into a scuffle with Sharma while the latter was handing over the beer bottles to Sunny,” said the officer mentioned above.

Sharma’s father, Manoj Kumar who works as a waiter at a luxury hotel in Noida, said he was on duty when his daughter called him that Nikhil has been injured in a fight, and admitted to Lal Bahadur Shastri (LBS) hospital. Manoj rushed to the hospital where his wife and daughter were already present. They told him that Nikhil succumbed to his wounds.

“I spoke with Sunny after learning that he had brought my son to the hospital and was with him at the crime scene. Sunny told me that my son was stabbed when he went to rescue him from the two attackers. The attackers fled and Sunny brought my son to the hospital in an auto-rickshaw,” said Manoj.

“There were at least 15 people, including some bouncers of the liquor shop. But nobody saved my son,” said Manoj.

Deputy commissioner of police (east) Priyanka Kashyap said the police learnt about the murder at 8.42pm, after the LBS hospital authorities informed the Pandav Nagar police station about the admission of a dead man who had suffered stab wounds during a quarrel. During the enquiry, it emerged that the murder took place following an altercation that ensued over a scooter hitting Sharma’s friend (Sunny).

“We have registered a case and are making efforts to nab the suspects,” added DCP Kashyap.

Nikhil’s death was the second such loss for the Sharma family in the last five years.

Nikhil’s youngerbrother Ashutosh Kumar Sharma alias Ashu drowned in the Ganga at Rudryaprayag in Uttarakhand where he had gone with his friends in July 2017. While the Uttarakhand police closed the case terming it an accident, his family members are still fighting for justice. The family suspects that Ashu’s friends pushed him into the river.

“While we are still waiting for justice for Ashu, we have now lost our second son (Nikhil) because of the violent response of a scooter rider. We moved to Delhi from our hometown (Purnea) to give our children a respectable life but have ended up losing two of them in five years . There is nothing left for us in Delhi,” said Manoj.