Violent protests in Delhi’s Taimur Nagar after man shot dead by alleged drug peddler

The protesters alleged police ‘inaction’ and demanded immediate arrest of the men who shot dead 34­year­old Rupesh Besoya from point ­blank range in south Delhi’s Taimur Nagar on Sunday evening.

Hundreds of residents from southeast Delhi’s Taimur Nagar on Monday took to the streets to protest the murder of 34-year-old Rupesh Besoya, who was shot dead at point blank range by an alleged drug peddler in front of his children and neighbours on Sunday night. The protestors alleged police inaction and demanded immediate arrest of the killers. No arrest was made in the case till late Monday.

The murder of Rupesh Besoya in southeast Delhi’s Taimur Nagar on the evening of September 30, 2018, triggered violent protests in the neighbourhood on Sunday night as well. (Sourced)

The incident took place at around 8.30 pm on Sunday when Rupesh, who runs a stationery shop on the ground floor of his house in Taimur Nagar, was playing cricket with his 12-year-old son, eight-year-old daughter and three other children from the neighbourhood.

According to police, two armed men appeared from a narrow street, shouting at someone using abusive language. “Rupesh’s children, who were present at the time of the incident, told us that he had asked them to not use abusive language in front of children. At this, one of the men who was already brandishing a gun, shot at Rupesh at point blank range and walked away,” said a police officer on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to media.

An eyewitness in the case who cannot be identified as investigations are on said, “Rupesh had just asked them to walk away quietly. I saw the man shooting at him. Hearing the gunshot, his wife came down running. We rushed towards a police post to call the police as he collapsed.”

Rupesh’s elder brother Umesh Besoya said that he was having dinner when the incident took place. “I rushed down and saw my brother was bleeding. We rushed him to Holy Family hospital from where the police took him to AIIMS later in the night. At AIIMS, he was pronounced dead,” Umesh said.

Umesh, who is also the president of the residents’ welfare association of the block in which the family lives, said that the association has given several complaints to the police mentioning that their neighbourhood was frequented by armed drug peddlers. “The complaints have remained unanswered. Police barely looked into our grievance. Behind our block is a land, which was initially allocated to Delhi Police. However, shanties have come up on the land and drug addicts are often found wandering in our neighbourhood,” he said.

Reacting to this, deputy commissioner of police (southeast) Chinmoy Biswal said that the complaints are being looked into.

The murder was caught in a CCTV camera, which went viral on social media on Monday. The footage clearly shows two men walking with pistols in their hands. As the duo passes by Besoya, the second one is seen shooting him in the chest at a very close range.

The murder triggered violent protests in the neighbourhood on Sunday night as the agitated locals pelted stones on policemen, alleging inaction by the police. Police said that the protesters vandalised a police vehicle and also set afire a motorcycle parked nearby. Additional police deployment was made to maintain law and order in the area. This deployment remained in place till Monday night.

DCP (southeast) Chinmoy Biswal said he has formed six teams, which are probing the murder from different aspects. “We have detained a few suspects for questioning. A number of locals are being questioned. We have possible leads and the culprits will soon be arrested,” Biswal said, adding that a case of murder under section 302 of Indian Penal Code has been registered.