Man humiliated in video, his friends beat bully to death

A man in east Delhi was abducted and beaten to death by his neighbor's friends after humiliating the neighbor and posting a video online.

A 27-year-old man, who humiliated his neighbour at Trilokpuri in east Delhi by forcing him to squat in a demeaning pose and then posted a video of the incident on social media, was abducted and beaten to death by his neighbour’s friends, police officers aware of the case said.

The deceased was identified as Ashok. (HT Photo)

The deceased was identified as Ashok (went by only one name) alias “Thanda Pani”, a registered bad character (BC) at the Mayur Vihar police station with more than 20 cases of robbery, burglary and theft against him.

Police did not identify the man who was humiliated, or his friends who beat Ashok to death on Monday, noting that all of them are yet to be arrested. Two more people, who were passing by at the time of the incident, were also beaten up, and their condition is said to be serious.

Investigators ruled out any communal angle to the murder.

Giving details of the case, police said that Ashok had forced his neighbour to do the “murga” (rooster) pose — squat while holding his ears — and kicked him, and posted a video of the incident on Instagram.

“Through local enquiry, we have learnt that the neighbour’s friends were enraged after seeing the video clip. The friends decided to take revenge, and abducted and murdered Ashok. The person in the video and the two suspects have been identified but are absconding,” an officer said, on condition of anonymity.

Deputy commissioner of police (east) Apoorva Gupta said on Monday at 2pm, the police control room received a call from the Lal Bahadur Shastri hospital about a person who was brought dead with injuries. Subsequently, a police team went to the hospital and identified the deceased as Ashok.

“There were no serious visible injury marks on the body. He probably died of internal injuries caused to his vital organs. The exact cause of death will be ascertained in the autopsy report. We registered a case of murder and took up the investigation,” said DCP Gupta.

During the probe, another police officer said, the investigating team learnt that Ashok was brought to the hospital in an e-rickshaw. Investigators identified and located the driver, whose questioning revealed that two men had bundled Ashok onto his vehicle at Trilokpuri, gave him ₹500, and told him that Ashok had met with an accident.

“Local enquiry revealed that Ashok was assaulted by two people, who have now been identified. Raids are being conducted to nab them,” added the officer, also on condition of anonymity.

According to the officer, further investigation into murder case revealed that Ashok ran a gang of budding criminals, including minors, and used them to threaten and harass local residents. He also operated a social media account on which he uploaded videos of troubling people, the officer said.