Delhi pacer Parvinder Awana beaten up in Greater Noida after he ‘intervenes in fight’

Awana, a resident of Harola village in Noida, had returned along with his cousins who live in Greater Noida in the wee hours of Friday. The cricketer had gone to buy ice from the ice factory later as his muscles were aching.

Right-arm Delhi pacer Parvinder Awana was on Friday evening roughed up by a group of unidentified men.

Cricketer Parvinder Awana (in dark grey vest) was thrashed by a group of unidentified persons in Greater Noida on Friday. (Srekumar Bajpai/HT)

The incident took place around 5.30pm near an ice factory behind The Great Venice Mall, where the right-arm pacer had gone to buy ice for to relax his muscles after a having walked home from Haridwar as part of the Kanwar pilgrimage.

Awana, a resident of Harola village in Noida, had returned along with his cousins who live in Greater Noida in the wee hours of Friday. The cricketer had gone to buy ice from the ice factory later as his muscles were aching.

According to him, the incident started when he noticed two groups allegedly fighting over a young woman at the factory.

“A group of five men and a woman were having a tiff with a man from the factory. The situation soon snowballed with the group wielding sticks to beat up the man from the factory,” Awana said. There were five people accompanying Awana when the incident took place.

“I tried to get down from the car and intervene, but was stopped. Later, I left the spot and the group with the woman had also left. A little way ahead, when we overtook their vehicle, they got aggressive and stopped their car in front of ours,” added Awana, who was at the wheel at the time of incident.

The accused then allegedly started beating up Awana. “Those people beat me up and also smashed the glass windows of my car. They were upset that I had overtaken their vehicle,” said Awana.

He claimed that the group turned more aggressive after figuring out that he was a cricketer.

The accused later threatened Awana of dire consequences and said that they will shoot him dead before leaving the spot, he said.

“We have registered a case after Awana was beaten up by some men in Greater Noida. The accused thrashed Awana as they thought that he was trying to follow them. A probe has been launched,” said Love Kumar, senior superintendent of police, Gautam Budh Nagar.

Police have obtained the CCTV footage of the incident and are in the process of identifying the accused. The cricketer sustained minor injuries on his wrist, lips and shoulders and was sent for a medical examination by the police. Police has registered a case under section 147(for rioting), 506 (for criminal intimidation) and 323 (for voluntarily causing hurt) of Indian Penal Code.