NEW DELHI: A 57-year-old businessman died on Sunday after he was allegedly thrashed inside his home by neighbours and property dealers over a parking row in Central Delhi’s West Patel Nagar area. The victim Rajinder Bhatia, who owned a three-storey building and sold his second floor to Karthik.



Bhatia was with his family when two property dealers along with the owner of the second floor came to visit him to discuss an unresolved parking dispute.



Sleuths said Karthik had rented the second floor to another family which had a tiff with Bhatia’s son Mokshit over car parking on Saturday night. Karthik along with his mother and local property dealers came to meet Bhatia for resolving the tiff on Sunday.



Unfortunately, the discussion turned ugly and Bhatia was manhandled by the visitors in the scuffle.



Bhatia’s wife and son Mokshit were unable to save him from the angry men. He was declared brought dead by doctors at the BLK Hospital in Rajendra Palace. Investigators suspect that the victim might have suffered cardiac arrest that led to his death as there was no injury marks on his body.



According to the victim’s family, Karthik started beating Bhatia as soon as he entered their room.



“The moment we opened the door Karthik started beating my father. He had come with local property dealers, his mother and some other people. They hit father on his chest and groin. Karthik’s mother had threatened us in the past,” Mokshit claimed.



Initially, the row over parking was solved between the two sides at the intervention of their families.



“On Sunday morning, Bhatia was sitting in his home when around 11.25 am, Karthik along with his mother came to meet him. They started abusing each other and after around 10 minutes, property dealers Ashok Oberoi and Dharmendra along with 10 others also reached there,” a police officer said, adding that matters worsened thereafter.



“During the clash, the victim suddenly fell on the ground. All the alleged persons fled and the victim was taken to a nearby hospital where doctors declared him brought dead,” the police officer added.



Although other neighbours witnessed the scuffle, none tried to pacify the two sides. The investigators ruled out use of any weapon during the scuffle.



Additional Commissioner of Police (Central) Alok Kumar said a case was registered on the complaint of the victim’s other son Mohit Bhatia.



“We are yet to confirm the reason behind Bhatia's death as he was only slapped and pushed by the other party. We have arrested Karthik and Ashok Oberoi. All the accused have been booked under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC,” he added.















































