Businessman’s murder: Nerves frayed in area as cops maintain fragile peace

NEW DELHI: There was simmering anger throughout Tuesday in WZ Block of west Delhi’s Basai Darapur about the manner in which Dhruv Tyagi and his son were brutally thrashed and finally stabbed for protesting against the harassment of Tyagi’s daughter by some local youths. A large number of policemen was deployed in the neighbourhood to prevent escalation of tensions.

Many of the Tyagis’ neighbours related to TOI the horror of the 30 minutes on Sunday in which the 51-year-old Dhruv Tyagi lost his life and Anmol was left injured by Jehangir and his three sons. Riyaz Ahmed, a 30-year-old property dealer recalled trying to save the father-son duo. “Even when I and a few others managed to pull the two away, the brutalising did not stop,” he said. “I put them on my scooter and rode towards the hospital, but one of the sons intercepted me and dragged Dhruv uncle down. He was bleeding profusely, but he kept hitting him with stones.”
Anmol, a BA student in Delhi University, has recorded his statement with the cops. The 21-year-old suffered four serious stab wounds and was again operated on Tuesday but remained in critical condition.
Ahmed, who is an eyewitness to the gruesome murder, narrated that he first intervened on hearing the loud cries of Tyagi’s daughter. “One of Jehangir’s three sons was holding the woman by her hair, while another appeared readying to hit her with a stone. I rushed out and pulled one of the youths away,” Ahmed said, adding that the accused and his family members then started attacking even him.
Tyagi’s daughter, who is yet to recover from the trauma of Sunday’s attack, disclosed that Jehangir’s mother and daughter had also attacker her.
The FIR, accessed by TOI, states that one of Jehangir’s sons made lewd gestures when Tyagi’s daughter was returning from the hospital with her father. According to the FIR, Anmol and his father later went to Jehangir’s house to talk about this. They reportedly found the three brothers in an inebriated state outside their house.
When the elder Tyagi confronted the three youths, Jehangir, his wife and his daughter joined in the argument and started pelting stones at their neighbours from the balcony. Police were told that Jehangir’s wife had handed him a knife. Tyagi, who died on Monday, was stabbed twice near the chest and forearms and also had injuries on his legs. Anmol told cops that when his sister ran to protect him, she was assaulted by Jehangir’s family, including the two women.
Monika Bhardwaj, DCP (West), said that police have taken in the accused’s wife and daughter for questioning after they were alleged to have been involved in the fracas. Unfortunately for the cops, the two CCTV cameras near the fight site were found to be dysfunctional. The investigators are, therefore, questioning eyewitnesses for mobile video recordings of the incident.