Dispute over phone call led to 19-year-old’s death in Gurugram, 4 held

Sonu Sharma succumbed to his injuries at Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi on Wednesday morning, two days after he and his friend were allegedly beaten up with a baseball bat, sticks and canes by a group of drunken men in Gurugram’s sector 7 on New Year’s eve.

Gurugram

Police said one of the accused approached Sonu Sharma, who later died, and asked for his phone to make a phone call to a friend. Sharma refused to hand over his phone, leading to an argument, which soon escalated into a fight. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

A dispute over a phone call led to the death of a 19-year-old man on the New Year’s eve in Sector 7, said the police on Thursday.

Sonu Sharma, a resident of Shivpuri, succumbed to his injuries at Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi on Wednesday morning, two days after he and his friend, Deepanshu, were allegedly beaten up with a baseball bat, sticks and canes by a group of drunken men. Sharma was arrested in April 2018 for allegedly raping a minor girl and was released recently on bail.

The police on Thursday arrested the four accused men for the alleged violent assault. The accused men have been identified as Pardeep Saini alias Monu (30), Ankit (19) and Neeraj (20), residents of Baldev Nagar, and Yogesh, a resident of Housing Board Colony.

According to the police, the incident took place on Monday around 11.30 pm when the victim, Sonu Sharma, and his friend, Deepanshu, were standing near a private medical centre in Madanpuri.

“One of the accused, Yogesh, approached Sharma and asked for his phone to make a phone call to a friend. Sharma refused to hand over his phone, leading to an argument, which soon escalated into a fight. Yogesh’s friends, who were consuming alcohol in a room in a house, adjacent to the medical centre, brought out sticks and canes and attacked them,” said Ashok Kumar, station house officer (SHO), New Colony police station. Sharma suffered internal bleeding and was referred to Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital, where he died on Wednesday. His friend, Deepanshu, who sustained a leg injury, reported the incident to the police.

The police registered a case of rioting, violent assault and criminal intimidation on Tuesday and added the section of murder to the FIR on Wednesday.