Man lynched on suspicion of theft in Prem Nagar, shopkeeper held

A 23-year-old man was lynched allegedly by a shopkeeper, his employees and neighbours over the suspicion of theft after they caught him and his friend peeping into the shop in outer Delhi’s Prem Nagar on Saturday evening. The identity of the dead man could not be established till Sunday night. His associate who was also beaten up by the mob but he managed to escape, the police said.

Police have arrested the shopkeeper, who had called the police control room and reported the alleged lynching. He has been identified by his first name Amit. A case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder under sections 304 and 34 (common intention) was registered at the Prem Nagar police station. Police said they are now looking for Amit’s employees who are absconding. The identity of other attackers is also being ascertained, they said.

Deputy commissioner of police (Rohini) SD Mishra said that the crime was reported around 7pm. A police patrolling van reached 40 feet road in Prem Nagar part-2 and found a man unconscious and bleeding with multiple injuries. The caller turned out to be Amit who runs auto spare parts shop in the area. The injured man was rushed to Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital where he was declared brought dead, said the DCP..

DCP Mishra said Amit told the police that his shop had been burgled last month. A mobile phone and digital video recorder (DVR) of the CCTV cameras installed in his shop were stolen. Amit claimed that despite the DVR was stolen, the footage related to the burglary was saved on his mobile phone. He said that the suspects were captured in the video footage and their faces were clear enough to identify them.

On Saturday, a police officer associated with the case said, Amit was present in the shop with his employees when he found that one of the thieves seen in the video footage was peeping into his shop along with his associate. The shopkeeper alerted his employees and they nabbed duo after a brief chase.

Amit, his employees and neighbours began thrashing them. Soon, they were joined by others who also thrashed the duo. The mob then brought the two men to Amit’s shop from where one of them managed to flee, the police said.

“Amit held the other injured man captive, hoping that someone from his family would come to rescue him and he would exchange him with money in lieu of his stolen articles. Amit called the police control room when he found the injured man sinking,” said the DCP.