Police arrest 4 for attack on Kashmiri family in Delhi

A video of the assault showing the woman sitting on the road and her family members trying to save her from the mob assaulting them with batons was widely circulated on social media on Friday.

A security guard and three other people have been arrested in connection with the alleged assault on five Kashmiri people, including four women, by a group of residents in southeast Delhi’s Siddhartha Extension on Thursday night.

The Kashmiri woman had alleged that she was physically assaulted by a mob. (HT File Photo)

The four men were booked for assault, molestation, sexual harassment and criminal intimidation, police said.

A video of the assault showing the woman sitting on the road and her family members trying to save her from the mob assaulting them with batons was widely circulated on social media on Friday. The victims, originally from Jammu and Kashmir, are from the same family.

Delhi Police commissioner Amulya Patnaik on Saturday informed Union home secretary Rajiv Gauba the alleged assault of the Kashmiri family had nothing to do with their state of origin.

During a briefing, Patnaik told Gauba that it was a local issue triggered by a dispute over feeding stray dogs in Sunlight Colony on Thursday night, a senior police officer said.

Deputy commissioner of police (southeast), Chinmoy Biswal said, “We arrested a security guard and three residents. Only one FIR has been registered, which is on the complaint of the victims, and action has been taken accordingly.” Biswal did not reveal the identity of those arrested, saying more people could be arrested as some other people are also being identified.

The victims had alleged on Friday that they were called “Kashmiri extremists” by some people in the mob and that the attack was “completely unprovoked”.

However, police said the locals, including some seen in the video, countered the claims, saying the fight broke out between the two sides over the family “feeding stray dogs” in the locality.