New Delhi: An apparel businessman was stabbed to death by three men during a snatching bid in central Delhi's Karol Bagh on Thursday. The victim, Mukesh Jha, resisted the men's attempt to snatch his woman friend's iPhone, police said. The incident has shown once the lapses in security in the area, considering the crime took place during the festival season when night patrolling is heightened.Police commissioner Sanjay Arora has asked the district police heads to be on high alert till Diwali.
Jha was returning home with a woman friend after dining at a restaurant in Beadonpura around 2.20am on Thursday when the three young men tried to snatch the woman's iPhone while they were near Sat Brahma School. The 38-year-old Jha intervened, leading to a scuffle. The men stabbed Jha on the leg but despite being seriously wounded and bleeding a lot, he managed to prevent the robbers from taking the phone. The assailants, realising they were in a disadvantageous situation having stabbed a man, fled the scene empty handed.
The woman friend phoned the cops, and a police control room van rushed Jha to Ganga Ram Hospital. However, due to the excessive blood loss, doctors declared him dead on arrival. Although many people were present at the time of the incident, no one stepped forward to assist the woman and her friend, said some people who saw the crime being committed One bystander who attempted to intervene was threatened by the robbers with a knife, a local said.
The entire incident was captured on CCTV cameras and the cops have got some crucial leads. The Karol Bagh police station has registered a case under sections 103 (1) (murder), 309 (robbery), 3 (5) (common intention) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and launched a manhunt to apprehend the three culprits. Four different teams, including of the special staff and the police station, have been pressed into service to identify the criminals with the help of CCTV footage from the spot and the surrounding areas.
A police officer from the district assured that while the initial investigation hadn't yet led to the identification of the perpetrators, the cops were confident that the murderers would be tracked down and arrested soon. Police have taken custody of Jha's body and sent it to the mortuary for postmortem examination.