Delhi: Two videos of assault emerge on social media, no case registered

Two videos of assault surfaced on the social media on Thursday. While one of the videos was from Azadpur Mandi, the location of the second video — in which a man

Two videos of assault surfaced on the social media on Thursday. While one of the videos was from Azadpur Mandi, the location of the second video — in which a man is seen being assaulted with wooden and plastic batons by a man in a police uniform and two-three civilians — could not be conclusively determined till late Thursday night.

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In the Azadpur Mandi video, an injured man is seen bleeding on the footpath while another man — who is apparently making the video — can be heard alleging that the injured man was assaulted by a policeman at the Mandi. In the video, some people are also seen surrounding two men in uniform riding a bike. The person who is making the video can also be heard instigating the crowd by saying, “maaro-maaro, gira do (hit them, hit them, pull them down).”

Deputy commissioner of police (northwest) Vijayanta Arya, however, denied that the man had been assaulted by a policemen. She said that a fight broke out between a customer and a civil defence volunteer deployed at the mandi over some issue on Tuesday.

“The two later gave in writing that the issue between them had been resolved and they do not want any police action,” said Arya.

According to the vendors at the Azadpur Mandi, the incident took place around 10pm on Tuesday, when the customer was making a purchase at a shop in the market. A minor argument ensued between a vendor and the customer, after which a civil defence volunteer intervened and allegedly beat up the customer.

Anil Malhotra, member of Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Azadpur, demanded strict action against the volunteer in question and also asked for increased police presence in the mandi to avoid such incidents.

“If the authorities cannot handle the market, then they should just shut it down. But if you have decided to keep it open, then customers will come in and you cannot go on beating them like this,” Malhotra said.

Adil Khan, chairperson of the APMC Azadpur, said that he was not aware of any such incident “We will take action against those who resort to violence against customers,” Khan said.

In the second video, a policeman and at least two civilians are seen assaulting a man on a road while none of the passers-by, including the one filming the assault, come to his rescue.

Though the exact reason behind the assault is not known, one of the passers-by can be heard saying that the man (who is being assaulted) was hugging people.

The date and exact place where the incident took place is not known, but a couple of vehicles seen in the video have Delhi’s registration number plates.

HT spoke to DCPs of West, Southwest and Dwarka districts. They said no such incident was reported tin any police stations in their respective districts.