Tea stall owner, mother, assaulted after dispute over cigarette in Ph-1

In another case of violence over sale of cigarettes, a 25-year-old man was arrested on Sunday for allegedly beating up a woman and her son, who run a tea stall in Laxman Vihar Phase-1, Sector 4, the police said on Monday. According to the police, the incident took place on May 4 around 7.30pm when the suspect came to the victim’s stall to buy cigarettes.

“I told him to wait because my son had gone to get cigarettes from another vendor. When he returned, he first gave the cigarettes to another customer. This angered the man and he started slapping my son. When I tried to shield him, the man picked up a steel pipe and hit me with it, at least four times,” the complainant stated in her FIR. She added that a bystander rescued her and the suspect fled the spot.

The police said that the woman and her son were admitted to a government hospital. While the boy was discharged after being given first aid, the woman’s hand was fractured and she was admitted for 10 days, police said.

Sub-inspector Ratan Singh of the Sector 9A police station said the police are investigating the case, registered under sections 323 (causing hurt), 325 (grievous hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.

The incident comes within a fortnight of the demise of a 58-year-old cigarette kiosk owner whose stall was set ablaze by a tempo driver, who had refused to clear his dues, in IMT-Manesar.