Delhi man booked for ‘murdering’ Bathinda youth

Prateek Chauhan and Gagandeep Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi/Bathinda, Sept 21

Even as a 21-year-old photography student, who was allegedly mowed down by a drunken lawyer in Delhi on Sunday, was cremated at his native village Lehra Mohabatt in Bathinda today, the police booked the accused for murder.

Rohit Krishna Mahanta, a native of Assam, was today remanded in police custody for a day by a city court for dashing his car into a motorcycle Gurpreet Singh and his friend Maninder Singh were riding, resulting in the death of Gurpreet and injuries to the latter.

The Delhi Police, who had initially booked Mahanta, a resident of Assam, under sections 337 (road accident causing hurt) and 279 (rash and negligent driving) of the IPC, today charged him with murder under Section 302, besides adding sections 295-A (deliberate act intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting his religion) and 307 (criminal intimidation) to the FIR.

Mahanta chased the two youths in his Ford Figo after an altercation at a food stall in South Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital area where the duo objected to Mahanta blowing cigarette smoke onto their faces.

According to the family of the deceased, the duo was out making a documentary on the life of pavement dwellers who slept in the open. Gurpreet Singh’s father Onkar Singh alleged that the police were trying to “lure him into a compromise.

DGSMC seeks Rs1-cr relief

The DSGMC today asked the Delhi Government to name its campaign for de-addiction in the name of Gurpreet. DSGMC president Manjit Singh GK and general secretary Manjinder Singh Sirsa demanded that the government should pay Rs1 crore as ex gratia to Gurpreet’s family. He demanded dismissal of the officers who tried to hush up the case and handing over probe to the CBI. He said if the demands were not met, the Delhi police headquarters would be ‘gheraoed’ on September 23.