LUDHIANA: A group thrashed a 60-year-old man to death after his pick-up
van hit a three-year-old girl in EWS Colony on Tajpur Road on Monday night. The colony residents also vandalised the van of Rampal Sharma, a resident of Sanjay Gandhi Colony.
As the group went on a rampage, the police reached the spot, but did not arrest the accused. Furious, Rampal’s kin staged a protest on Tajpur Road along with his body. The stir halted the traffic for about four hours. The protesters lifted the blockade around 1.30am after the police assured to book the accused.
Rampal’s pick-up van injured the three-year-old while she was playing outside her house in EWS Colony around 7.30pm. Her angry family members thrashed Rampal and vandalized his vehicle. Rampal managed to escape, leaving his pick-up van at the spot. On reaching home, he narrated the incident to his brother and nephew. Rampal, accompanied by his brother and neighbours, returned to EWS Colony to get the vehicle.
Naresh Kumar, brother of Rampal, said when they reached the spot, they found the vehicle vandalized. “Cops were standing along with the accused. On seeing Rampal, the colony residents started arguing with him. Some of them beat him up and attacked him with iron rods. We rushed him to a private hospital on Brown Road, where doctors declared him brought dead,” Naresh added.
The police have registered a case under sections 304 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon) and 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) of the IPC against BSP ward president Vicky, Pathi, Sonu, Monu, Raju Sherourwala, wives of Vicky and Monu and some unidentified persons, all residents of EWS Colony. Assistant commissioner of police Pawanjit Chaudhary said the accused would be arrested soon.
Representative image