Drunk youth 'falls' to death

Crying foul, the Haryana resident’s death was a murder, his family members claim

A 22-year-old man was found dead on the lawn of the building where he was putting up with two others for the past 20 days in south Delhi’s Katwaria Sarai early on Friday.

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Police maintain that Ankit Sharma, who was from Ballabgarh in Haryana, fell accidentally from the fifth floor of the building, his family members alleged that he was killed by his friends for money.

The police added that preliminary medical reports had suggested that he was drunk at the time of the incident.

The family members held a protest on Sunday outside the Vasant Vihar police station and demanded action against his friends at whose flat he was putting up.

They alleged that Sharma had been held captive in the flat by his friends who brought him to Delhi with the promise of getting him a job.

“We have received the complaint filed by Sharma’s family members and will register a case under Section 304A (death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code. We are waiting for the post-mortem report to reach a conclusion,” said a senior police officer.

Around 10.30 pm, the officer said, Sharma, who drank regularly, had left the Katwaria Sarai flat and went to meet his friend Sunil in Badarpur. They drank together and allegedly went to a brothel on GB Road, police said.

“Around 3.30am, they returned to Badarpur from where Sunil left for his village in Ballabgarh while Sharma returned to his friends' flat. Since his two friends Kapil and Rocky were asleep, Sharma went to the terrace from where he accidentally fell down. We found his slippers and a bottle of beer on the terrace,” added the officer.

According to the family members, Sharma, whose father had died when he was only two years old, had recently sold his paternal property at Bahadarpur village in Ballabgarh for Rs. 20 lakh.

When his friends got to know about this, they brought him to Delhi. His family members also alleged that the friends had recently withdrawn Rs. 5 lakh from his account to buy a car. The remaining amount, they say, is missing. On the contrary, police said, Sharma spent the money to lead a lavish lifestyle.