delhi

Updated: Feb 03, 2019 10:57 IST

A 24-year-old man was stabbed to death by three men, including the son of a Delhi policeman, for intervening in a quarrel between two groups of people in outer Delhi’s Rohini on Friday night, the police said.

According to the police, they arrested all the three suspects and recovered the knife used in the alleged killing. The arrested men include Gaurav Dahiya, the son of an assistant sub-inspector (ASI), a senior police officer who did not want to be identified said.

The other two suspects were identified as Prince and Sachin Mishra. Police said that Gaurav and Sachin have criminal cases against them .

The deceased, Rajat Chaudhary, lived with his parents in Rohini and ran a mobile phone shop in the Avantika Market, close to his home. “On Friday night, Rajat and two of his friends were having soft drinks at the market around midnight. Standing close to them were two other men, Lokesh and Vipin. The latter owns a paan shop in the market,” Gaurav Sharma, deputy commissioner of police (outer north), said.

The police said that the problem started when Gaurav, Prince and Sachin—all three of them allegedly drunk at the time—rode into the market on a Royal Enfield motorcycle and asked Vipin for paan. Since Vipin had already downed his shutters, he refused to oblige the trio. That allegedly led to the trio abusing and hitting him.

“The man (Vipin) was repeatedly slapped; he begged Rajat for help. Rajat intervened and asked the trio to let go of the man, but Gaurav told Rajat, ‘you don’t know who you are taking on’,” Rajat’s uncle, Sanjeev Kapoor, who claimed to be an eyewitness to the murder, alleged.

According to the DCP, Gaurav then whipped out a knife and stabbed Rajat twice. The suspects then rode away on their motorcycle. Rajat was rushed to a private hospital nearby, where he was declared dead on arrival.

Since Rajat’s friends and other eyewitnesses knew the suspects from before, the police raided their hideouts in outer Delhi neighbourhoods and arrested them.

The murder, meanwhile, led to local residents protesting against the law and order situation in Rohini and blocking the nearby road for a few minutes before the police arrived at the spot and convinced them to clear the road. The murder also saw many shops in the Avantika Market downing their shutters in protest.