Nido Tania, a 19-year-old college student and the son of
Arunachal Pradesh MLA Nido Pavitra, was allegedly beaten to death by a group of
six to seven people led by a shopkeeper at Lajpat Nagar in south Delhi.
The gruesome incident took place on Wednesday afternoon at around
1: 30 am when the shopkeeper of a dairy products shop made obscene remark on
Tania’s spiked and pale golden colour hair and allegedly called him “Chinki”, a
racial slur, to which the youth and his two friends objected.
The incident comes in the backdrop of the recent alleged
racial slur against African women living at Khirke Extension in south Delhi by
Delhi law minister Somnath Bharti and his party’s volunteers on the suspicion
that they were involved in a sex and drugs racket.
A preliminary probe revealed that Tania was a first year
student at Lovely Professional University in Jalandhar and had come to Delhi
for a vacation. His father Nido Pavitra is a sitting MLA in Arunachal Pradesh
from Raga constituency and also holds the position of parliament secretary
(Health & Family Welfare and Food and Civil Supplies).
Tania had gone to Lajpat Nagar area to meet an ailing friend
from North-East when a shopkeeper of Rajasthan Paneer Bhandar at A block in
Lajpat Nagar Part-I area made “unsavoury” remark on Tania’s blonde hair colour.
According to his cousin Arun Chamrak, “Tania was looking for
an address with his friend. They approached the men present at shop to help
them find the address.” He was accompanied by his two friends from North East.
“Tania approached Farhan, one of the shop owners, for
direction as he was new to the area but he made some bad remarks on his colour
of the hair to which the former protested. It was led to heated exchange of
words between the two and followed by a scuffle…,” said Rakesh arora, an
eye-witness who runs a mobile repairing shop in the vicinity. Around 50 other
people living in the area came on the streets and were watching the fight.
In the melee, Tania vehemently protested and challenged them
for making fun of him and allegedly smashed the glass of the shop after the
shop-keeper called him “Chinki”
It was then Farhan 25 and his brother Akram 23 - owner of
shop– demanded Rs 10,000 from Tania and his friends for the damage to his shop
as scuffle continued. A nearby shopkeeper called up at police control room van
and police officials arrived on the spot and took Tania and his friends and the
two brothers to Lajpat Nagar police station. They asked the two Tania’s friends
to leave for their houses.
Instead of taking any action against the shop owner for
making racial slur, police chose to strike a deal for settlement.
“The cops asked Tania and his friends to pay Rs 10,000 to
the shopkeeper for breaking the glass which they did finally. It’s shocking
that the policemen refused to register a complaint of racial slur against the
shopkeeper saying the matter was now settled amicably and asked the two
shop-owners to leave,” alleged J.P Tamang, a student leader from North East,
now based in Delhi.
Tania, however, insisted that the two brothers had in fact
made the racial remarks for nothing.
However, the family members have different tale. “He was
beaten by sticks and rods and it was the two cops made him to sit between them
on a bike and brought on the spot from the police station where the scuffle had
taken place for an inquiry. But they did not say anything to the co-owners of
the shop and asked Tania to leave saying a compromise had already been taken
place between the two,” Nido Jose Apil, uncle of the deceased, said.
A group of seven people led by the shopkeeper attacked Tania
with rods and lathis when returned to the area looking for his friend house,
alleged his Dinesh Gupta, a family friend. From there he and his friends
fled away.
“He sustained severe internal injuries and his friends took
him to his sister place in Green Park Extension where he succumbed to his
injuries on Thursday evening,” said Tamang. Apil said police took cognizance
into the matter on Thursday only after they informed them of his death. Tania’s
elder sister Luco Nedo studies in Kamla Nehru College in the capital.
Police are yet to arrest the culprits.
“A murder case has been registered against the accused
persons. We have detained both Farhan and Akram and interrogation is on to
identify all accused persons involved in the incident and they are being
interrogated,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (south east) P Karunakaran.
After few days six people were arrested in which two were juveniles and others are Farman, 22, Sunder, 27, and Pawan, 27.
On request of Nido's father before home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi the matter has been given Central Bureau of Investigation for further probe.
ENDS
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