Two men thrashed, attacked with blade for open urination in north Delhi
Rohit Saluja and his friend received cuts on their faces, necks and arms, but are out of danger. An investigator not authorised to speak to the media said three men have been arrested for the attack.
New Delhi
Two men were beaten up and attacked with blades by a group of locals in north Delhi on Thursday for allegedly urinating in the open. Police said that the incident was reported from Timarpur.
According to the police, Rajat Kumar, 23, received injuries in his left eye, while his friend Rohit Salujam,20 received injuries on his neck and hand.
Harendra Kumar Singh, additional DCP (north) said the two men are out of danger and three local residents have been arrested for the crime.
Rohit, police said, works as a DJ and lives with his family in New Market, barely a few hundred metres from Timarpur police station. His friend, Rajat, lives in nearby Sanjay Basti and had come to meet him in the marketplace on Monday evening.
“Rajat wanted to urinate and I advised him to go to the public toilet some distance away. But since everyone from the market chooses the Ramlila ground wall for urinating, Rajat also began urinating there,” Rohit told HT.
Rohit alleged that Rajat had barely unzipped his pants when a local youth, identified as Rahul attacked him. “I tried to save Rajat, but two more men soon joined in the assault. One of them pulled out a blade and began slashing at us,” Rohit alleged.
Rohit said the men continued to attack him despite his pleadings.
Deepak Thakur, a vendor and an eyewitness to the attack said. “The man urinating on the roadside had begun abusing when he was asked not to urinate in the open. That provoked the local youths.”
Thakur said the locals who bashed up the two men were the “voice” of the people who were tired of open urination in the marketplace. “This has become a habit for everyone, including businessmen in this market. They have toilets in their shops, but choose this spot. Finally someone acted on our behalf. But they shouldn’t have used blades,” said Thakur.
One of the arrested attackers, Sagar, said that he and his friends decided to take on Rajat because one of their sisters was passing by when they were urinating. “We beat him up, but we did not use blades. But I don’t mind getting arrested for doing something for maintaining the sanitation in my neighbourhood,” said Sagar.
The residents pointed out that most people of the marketplace choose to urinate in the open despite having toilets at their workplace. “Most of us slum dwellers don’t have toilets at our homes, yet we don’t relieve ourselves on the roadside,” said Aarti, a resident.
Other residents of the slum, onn the other hand, confessed to not using toilets. “The toilet complex is strewn with syringes used by drug addicts. We don’t feel safe. Moreover, the toilets are locked by 9 pm, so many of us never visit these public toilets. Instead, we use the forested area ,” said Sonu, a local resident.