He had returned from the United States with family two months ago; both accused have been arrested

A non-resident Indian died on Wednesday after he was allegedly thrashed by a security guard and a young man over seeking directions in DLF Phase-II here, the police said on Thursday. Both accused have been arrested on murder charges.

Somou Balaya had returned from the United States with his wife Geeta and their teenage son two months ago.

He had gone to a private school on Wednesday evening in his car when the incident happened.

Altercation started

Somou had asked his driver to return an hour later to pick him up.

Before the driver arrived, Somou got into an altercation with security guard 46-year-old Pradeep Singh and 25-year-old local resident Manik Khosla over seeking directions while walking down to a place in Block “P” of DLF Phase-II around 4.30 p.m. The argument turned violent and the two accused started thrashing Somou. He passed out on the road after the beating.

16DEL_MANIK | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

An anonymous call was made to the police regarding a man lying unconscious on the road. Head constable Devender reached the spot and took Somou to a hospital with the help of local residents.

However, he was declared brought dead at the hospital.

Somou was identified with the help of the identity card in his wallet and his wife was informed about the incident. Somou was currently staying with his family in a multistorey house in DLF Phase-I.

Cardiac arrest

Somou visited India once a year for a couple of months and stayed at his house in DLF Phase-I. He belonged to Puducherry, the police said.

Deepak Mathur, who conducted the post-mortem, said preliminary findings suggest Somou died due to cardiac arrest.

One of the accused, Pradeep Singh | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

He said the body bore superficial injuries but they were not serious enough to cause death.

The body was handed over to the family following the post-mortem.

Both the accused have been arrested and taken in one-day remand from the local court for interrogation, the police said. Manik is unemployed, the police said.

Forced to file complaint

The caretaker of Somou’s house, Sonu Mishra, alleged the police forced him to sign the complaint.

Sonu said he was at home in DLF Phase-I when the police came over around 6 p.m. and informed him about Somou’s death. Stating that he had no knowledge of the sequence of events leading to Somou’s death, the caretaker claimed the police had forcibly made him file a complaint in the case.

The family of the deceased refused to talk to the media.

Gurugram Police spokesperson Subhash Boken said a case was registered after the complaint was received by the police.