india

Updated: Apr 12, 2019 22:57 IST

A man, suspected to be a thief, died after he was allegedly bound and thrashed by workers at an outer north Delhi farmhouse he had entered early Thursday, the police said.

The police responded by nabbing three workers and booking them for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and illegal confinement. Gaurav Sharma, deputy commissioner of police (outer-north), said the suspected thief did not die of the beating.

“Doctors have told us that he was a smack (heroin) addict and that he died after displaying withdrawal symptoms. The injuries on his body seem to be sustained from injuries days earlier,” Sharma said.

The FIR registered after the death has mentioned “multiple linear abrasions” on the back of the dead man who remains unidentified, but is believed to have been in his mid-20s.

The alleged incident took place at a farmhouse in Ghogha village in Narela. According to Sharma, the farmhouse mainly serves as a wood godown and is fenced with wooden planks.

“Thieves had struck at this farmhouse two-three times in the past. That had kept the workers alert,” Sharma said.

The police subsequently registered a case and arrested two adult workers, Vinod and Rahul, and apprehended a minor.

On Wednesday night, the farmhouse was being guarded by three workers — a woman, her son and nephew. “The thieves would sneak into the farmhouse at night and steal items after filling them in sacks. This has happened thrice in the past,” the woman told a news channel.

She said the thieves struck again around 2.30am on Thursday. “There were two men who had entered the farmhouse. We immediately switched off the lights and waited to catch them. They picked up a box from the farmhouse and were preparing to leave when I asked my son and nephew to catch them,” the woman said.

One of the two suspects managed to escape, but the other was caught. “We locked him up in a room, but did not beat him up,” the woman said. “He was beaten up by other workers who arrived in the morning,” the woman added.

The FIR also mentioned that the suspect had been tied up during his time in captivity.

Finally, it was the supervisor of the farmhouse who called the police around 10am after arriving at the spot, the DCP said. “But when were taking him away, his health deteriorated, because of which we rushed him to a hospital. He was declared dead on arrival,” the FIR said.

Dr Manoj Jungwal, chief medical officer of the emergency department of Narela’s Satyawadi Raja Harish Chandra Hospital, said the cause of the death would be known only after the autopsy report.

“I was told that the patient had been beaten up and that he was also a drug addict. However, we cannot say how he died. It will be clear only after the autopsy report,” Dr Jungwal said.

The incident comes less than a month after a woman suspected of theft at a factory in outer-north Delhi’s Samaypur Badli was allegedly lynched. At that time, another woman who had escaped a similar fate by locking herself in a bathroom, had been booked for theft and arrested.