DU student, juvenile held for lynching e-rickshaw driver

Delhi Police has arrested a Delhi University student and detained his juvenile accomplice for lynching an e-rickshaw driver after he objected to them urinating at GTB Metro Station in north Delhi, a senior police officer said on Wednesday.

The lynching which happened on Saturday night grabbed national attention with leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, condemning the death and urging police to arrest the culprits.

Police said the accused student Shekhar Kapasia, 19, and his juvenile friend were captured in a CCTV footage which helped to identify them.

They were arrested from their hideouts in Muzaffarnagar of Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday night.

Kapasia, a B.Com Second year of Sri Aurobindo College in Malviya Nagar, is a resident of Sant Nagar. His juvenile accomplice, 17, is studying at a south Delhi school, and is a resident of Malviya Nagar.

Both of them are natives of Muzaffarnagar, police said.

"We have identified five other youths. We are interrogating Kapasia and the juvenile to ascertain the hideouts of their associates involved in killing e-rickshaw driver Ravinder Kumar on Saturday. Seven police teams and a team of Crime Branch are conducting a manhunt to trace their hideouts in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana," Deputy Commissioner of Police Milind Mahadeo Dumbere told IANS.

"Kapasia and his juvenile accomplice told investigators that the verbal altercation with Kumar turned abusive and they took it personally. They planned to take revenge and later returned with their friends. One of them tied up stones in a cotton towel and attacked Kumar multiple times," Dumbere said.

The police teams had looked for suspects from around 300 students of the School Of Open Learning (SOL) of Delhi University, whose examination centre was located in Kirori Mal College, on the day of the incident. Records of some students from Sri Aurobindo College were also checked.

Kapasia and the juvenile were identified later as they were caught in a CCTV footage enquiring about Kumar's whereabouts from other e-rickshaw drivers near GTB Nagar Metro Station, police said.

On Saturday night, they had a verbal altercation with Kumar after he objected to them having alcohol and urinating near the GTB metro station.

Kumar was later declared brought dead on arrival at a nearby hospital.

On Sunday, Union Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu tweeted: "Sad that an e rickshaw driver was beaten to death for stopping 2 people from urinating in public in Delhi. He was promoting SwachhBharat."

On Monday, Naidu visited the deceased's house and gave a cheque of Rs 50,000 to his family.

Later on the same day, Modi and Delhi government announced compensations of Rs 1 lakh and Rs 5 lakh respectively to Kumar's family.

--IANS

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