Nigerian beaten up by police, public for allegedly assaulting traffic cop in Delhi
On Wednesday, after a video of the incident surfaced, police booked the foreign national and ordered an enquiry into the role of the mob.
Members of the public and traffic policemen in Dwarka Mod on Monday assaulted a 35-year-old man from Nigeria who allegedly manhandled officials after he was prosecuted for a traffic violation.
On Wednesday, after a video of the incident surfaced, police booked the foreign national and ordered an enquiry into the role of the mob.
No one was arrested in the case till the filing of this report.
Prince is a resident of Mohan Garden, a neighbourhood near Dwarka. Around 10.30 am on Monday, Prince was riding a scooter and was flagged down by three traffic policemen for not wearing a helmet.
“Prince was asked to produce the documents of the scooter but he tried to flee. When the traffic policemen tried to stop him, he caught one of them by his collar and manhandled him. The public intervened after that and the traffic policemen made a call to the police control room at around 11 am,” said Anto Alphonse, deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka).
A 91-second video of the incident showed one traffic policeman holding Prince, while another landed a punch on him. Soon, it was a free-for-all as several members of the public joined in even as he continued to latch on to the uniform of the policeman and appeared to be fighting back.
Prince and a policeman had their shirts torn in the incident that took place in full public view near the Dwarka Mod metro station on the Najafgarh Road that is notorious for traffic jams.
The video, however, did not capture how it all began.
According to Sarjeet, a guard who works near the spot of the assault, Prince was “speaking a lot” when the traffic police tried to prosecute him. “He was calling the police ‘paagal’ (mad),” said Sarjeet.
“The situation escalated when a policeman tried to take away his scooter keys and he (Prince) responded by catching the policeman’s collar. The policemen began hitting him after that and the public joined in,” said Sarjeet, who kept referring to Prince in a derogatory
manner.
Sameer, a fruit seller in front of whose stall the assault happened, said that many people joined the mob against Prince without even knowing the context. “There were at least a dozen people who thrashed him. They were shouting maaro maaro (beat him, beat him),” said Sameer.
“For a while, no one cared to stop the assault. But soon, some people, including my brother Imran, stepped in to save the man,” said Sameer. The video, towards the end, showed some people attempt to stop the assault.
When the police arrived, they took Prince and the three traffic policemen -- an assistant sub-inspector and two constables – away to Mohan Nagar police station. An investigator familiar with the incident said that a “compromise” was brokered between Prince and the policemen then, but police moved to book him after the video surfaced.
While the police said that one traffic policeman was injured in the assault, Prince’s health remained unclear.
The incident comes four months after an incident on November 22 when a mob assaulted around six persons from Africa on suspicion of killing and eating a boy who was later found alive and unharmed.
Nigerians living in the neighbourhoods said they could immediately relate to Prince’s situation. “Two years ago, a mob thrashed me in a bus and then chased me on the roads after I questioned one of them intentionally stamping my foot,” said 33-year-old Kelly John, a garments trader.
Another Nigerian, Abeo, said that just days ago, he was slapped hard on his back, without any provocation, by three motorcycle-borne men. “They laughed and sped away. We are peace-loving people, but won’t accept abuse. Give respect to get respect,” said Abeo.
The Dwarka police said they have been holding regular and frequent interactions with representatives of residents from African countries there.