Minor among 3 held for setting ablaze three bikes to avenge slapping

Delhi Police arrested two men and a minor for setting fire to motorcycles in retaliation for a past altercation, with a fourth suspect still at large.

The Delhi Police on Sunday said it apprehended a minor boy and arrested his two associates, who along with another accomplice, allegedly set ablaze three parked motorcycles and metal gate of a house in a residential neighbourhood lane in northwest Delhi early Monday.

A CCTV video from Jahangirpuri showed four persons allegedly setting two-wheelers and a gate on fire with a suspected flammable liquid, police said. (Representative photo)

The three were nabbed nearly four days after a CCTV footage from Jahangirpuri area showed four people setting on fire two-wheelers and a gate after pouring, what is suspected to be, flammable liquidsurfaced on social media, the police said, adding that the fourth suspect is still on the run.

Primary investigation found that they had do so as revenge against the owner of the vehicles, who along with some associates, had allegedly slapped the minor boy in January after an altercation over the teenager’s motorcycle hitting them, according to deputy commissioner of police (northwest) Akanksha Yadav,

DCP Yadav said that, on June 8, the owner of the vehicles, whose work is linked to computers and who is a resident of Jahangirpuri’s E-Block, filed a complaint. In it, he alleged that, around 3am that day, while he was asleep at home, he heard loud noises outside. He later found that three parked two-wheelers had been set on fire and suspected it had been done intentionally. Accordingly, a case of mischief by fire was registered under section 326 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

“The nabbed boy told us that in January, while riding his motorcycle near EE-Road in Jahangirpuri, his two-wheeler had accidentally hit members of the complainant party, due to which they allegedly slapped him. Since then, he had been harbouring a grudge against them,” said DCP Yadav.