“Some videos on the Internet show Saroj lying unconscious outside the restaurant and the accused throwing bricks at his leg. But earlier, they also hit him on his head and then brought him outside the restaurant,” Siddharth Shankar Meena, Additional SP (city) said.
A second-year LLB student of Allahabad Degree College succumbed to injuries on Sunday morning, two days after he was brutally beaten up by a group of youths following an argument outside a restaurant in Colonelganj police station area. Using CCTV footage, police have identified the main accused and detained two others, including the restaurant owner, for questioning.
The matter came to light after some videos, reportedly of the same incident, surfaced on social media. One such video, reportedly shot by a passerby, shows two people beating the youth with an iron rod and bricks, while some others are seen trying to stop them. Police said that that victim, Dileep Saroj (26), was a Dalit and a resident of Pratapgarh district.
“The incident took place around 11 pm on Friday when Saroj went to the restaurant to have dinner with his three friends — Sameer, Prakash and Siddharth. At the restaurant, they had an argument with some unidentified people,” said Allahabad SSP Akash Kulhary.
“Following the argument, Saroj was beaten up, dragged outside the restaurant and left there. Later, he was admitted to the Shakuntala Hospital by the restaurant staff, where he succumbed to his injuries on Sunday morning at the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit,” Kulhary said.
“Saroj had suffered severe head injuries. Looking at the injuries, it appears that he was beaten with a heavy object. Some videos on the Internet show Saroj lying unconscious outside the restaurant and the accused throwing bricks at his leg. But earlier, they also hit him on his head and then brought him outside the restaurant,” Siddharth Shankar Meena, Additional SP (city) said.
He added that Saroj’s friends too had suffered minor injuries and probably fled from the scene to save themselves.
“On a complaint by Mahesh Chandra, elder brother of the deceased, an FIR was registered on Saturday against unidentified people under the sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 307 (attempt to murder) and 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) of IPC. After Saroj’s death, the charge of murder was added,” he said.
SSP Kulhary said that while the main accused has been identified as Vijay Shankar Singh, a resident of Sultanpur district, two others, including restaurant owner Amit Upadhyay, have been detained for questioning. He added that all the accused in the case would be arrested soon.