Techie kills sound operator over parking dispute in Delhi

A sound operator was fatally stabbed in New Delhi over a dispute about truck passage, with a software engineer arrested as the prime suspect.

New Delhi: A 38-year-old sound operator died and his 23-year-old associate suffered injuries in an altercation with a group of three to four people, including a software engineer, over giving passage to the operator’s truck in a narrow lane in Aya Nagar in the early hours of Friday, police said on Saturday.

Police said a case has been registered (Photo for representation)

Police said a 32-year-old software engineer, identified as Ravi, who works with a telecom company in Gurugram, is the prime accused in the incident and was arrested from his hometown of Sonepat in Haryana later in the day. Deputy commissioner of police (south) Ankit Chauhan identified the victim as Sandeep Lohia, who was declared dead on arrival at a private hospital in Gurugram, and the associate as Rishi Gupta.

A senior police officer aware of the matter said, “A verbal altercation escalated and turned violent during which the accused stabbed them with a knife he kept in his car. The car occupants, who had come to attend a wedding, fled after the attack. The injured men were taken to the Gurugram hospital, where Lohia was declared dead. Gupta is stable and out of danger.”

DCP Chauhan said that Lohia played music at weddings and social gatherings, and they were returning in their Tata 407 mini truck after playing music at a function in Dera late Thursday when the incident took place.

Around 12.30am on Friday, they reached Ganpati Garden in Aya Nagar where a wedding was taking place. Their truck could not pass through due to a parked Maruti Swift car. A dispute arose between them and the occupants of the car over the issue of removing the car and giving passage to the truck, which ended in the fatal stabbing, the officer cited above said.

DCP Chauhan said that a case of murder and attempt to murder was registered under sections 103 and 109 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita at the Fatehpur Beri police station. Investigators scanned CCTV cameras, established the car’s ownership and arrested the prime suspect.