As the accused thrashed Dilip, his friends managed to escape.
Highlights
- Dilip Saroj beaten to death by group of men, attack filmed by witness
- Fight reportedly began over argument with attackers
- Police say main accused is Vijay Shankar Singh, works for Indian Railways
In a disturbing video from Uttar Pradesh's Allahabad, a 26-year-old law student is seen being thrashed by a group of men who take turns to hit him with a hockey stick, broken pipe and bricks outside a restaurant. The man slipped into a coma and died at a hospital this morning. A waiter of the restaurant has been arrested over the incident, and search for the other accused is on, police said.
The video, shot on a mobile phone reportedly by a passerby, shows the victim, Dilip Saroj, lying unconscious on the steps of the restaurant where the incident took place last night. As the men, seemingly drunk, beat him, a passerby briefly stopped, while others seemed to not notice anything. The men, who captured the crime, are heard saying in the video, "The police will turn up only after he is dead". However, neither makes a call to the police.
A man in a brown leather jacket, who is the owner of the restaurant, is seen in the video pushing and shoving the attackers to stop them, but fails. He, along with a few others, later takes Dilip to the hospital on a motorcycle.
The police have registered a First Information Report or FIR based on a complaint filed by Dilip's brother. According to the police, Dilip, who lived in a rented house in Allahabad, had gone out for dinner with two friends. They reportedly had an argument with the attackers which soon turned violent. Dilip's friends managed to escape.
"We had gone for dinner at Kalika restaurant. After dinner, we were sitting on the stairs that lead to the restaurant. Three people came, pushed us, abused and went to the restaurant on the first floor. We followed them to the restaurant to confront them which is when they started beating us. I was hit with chairs too, but I managed to escape," Prakash Singh, one of Dilip's friends and an eyewitness in the case, told NDTV. The attack was captured in the CCTV camera inside the restaurant.
According to the police, Munna Chauhan, who works as a waiter, hit Dilip on the head with a iron rod. However, it's unclear why he attacked Dilip and later helped take him to the hospital.
"We can see the men in the CCTV footage, but except for the main accused, Vijay Shankar Singh, who is reported to be employed with the Indian Railways, we have not been able to identify the rest. We have formed special teams to arrest the accused," said Sukriti Madhav, Assistant Superintendent of Police, Allahabad.