5 men, 4 juveniles nabbed in connection with Kanwariya vandalism

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Five men and four juveniles have been arrested in 24 hours for allegedly vandalising a car last week in west Delhi's Moti Nagar area after the vehicle brushed past one of their Kanwariya friends, police said today.

Yesterday, police arrested Yogesh (19) for allegedly being part of the group that vandalised the car.

Earlier, police said that they had arrested nine persons in connection with the incident, but later it was found that four of them were juveniles.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Vijay Kumar said the operation to nab the accused lasted till 5 am today.

The accused were identified on the basis of the CCTV footages. The police scanned the records of the Kanwar camp located between Moti Nagar and Najafgarh and also contacted the organisers and workers of these camps, he said.

Their entry registers were obtained and around 1,000 pilgrims who had stayed at these camps on the day before and after the incident were physically verified, the DCP said.

The teams also enquired from priests of temples situated in proximity of Najafgarh Road, where the pilgrims would have ended their yatra and offered holy water, he said.

Yesterday, police identified one of the accused as Yogesh. He was wearing a black T-shirt, and was seen hitting the car with a bat in the video. Another accused, identified from the video, was Vishal alias Dabla (20), who was wearing a white vest.

Both the accused are residents of JJ Colony, Sector-3, Dwarka.

Subsequently, Yogesh was nabbed and he led police to Vishal, who was nabbed from Nikhil Vihar behind DTC depot Kair village.

Another accused Sachin (25) was nabbed from Nikhil Vihar behind DTC depot in Kair village. Sachin was interrogated at length and he disclosed that he was provoked by one of his friends Aman Kumar (19), a resident of Najafgarh to vandalise the car.

Aman had told his friends that he was hit by the car which caused the holy water he was carrying to be spilled on the road.

Later, the four juveniles involved in the incident were also apprehended from the Najafgarh area at the instance of the accused persons, police said.

Another accused, Rahul Billa, was arrested on August 9 in connection with the incident.

The victims, whose car was vandalised, had refused to give a complaint in writing but police said, with the main accused being arrested, they will be requested to help in the probe.

Most of the accused are involved in small-time jobs while, Jitender is pursuing graduation.

The incident took place on August 7 on a stretch of a busy road near the Moti Nagar metro station. A ruckus had broken out after a grey car being driven by a woman, who was with a male friend, allegedly hit a Kanwariya.

A heated argument ensued between the two sides and one of the Kanwariyas was allegedly slapped by the male occupant of the car. The Kanwariyas then vandalised the vehicle with baseball bats.

A video of the incident, captured by a CCTV camera installed at a shop, showed the Kanwariyas breaking the car's windshields, windows and headlights with baseball bats even as a policeman tried hard to stop them.

The rampage came to a halt only after unidentified people overturned the car in the middle of the road.

The couple had fled the scene fearing for their lives and refused to give any complaint in writing.

A case was registered and the accused were identified on the basis of inquiries conducted by the police and the CCTV footage.