Scooter hits girl, clash escalates into mob attack on Ghaziabad slum; 5 arrested

GHAZIABAD: An accident led to mob vandalism of a slum cluster near Raj Nagar District Centre on Tuesday afternoon, ending in the arrest of 5 people. More than a dozen people armed with sticks vandalised the slums after a child was hit by a scooterist near new railway station crossing.

Angered by the child’s injury, people of the slum beat up the scooterist, who called his acquaintances to the spot over the phone. It’s this group that ran amok at the slums. CCTV footage accessed by TOI shows more than a dozen people holding sticks and damaging huts in the slum cluster.Vishal, the complainant, said around 3pm, two men on a scooter were passing through new railway station crossing near RDC when the scooter hit his nine-year-old niece Aaina.

He said a scuffle broke out, during which the scooter driver fell and suffered injuries. “After this, the two men called more of their associates, and all of them started demolishing our huts with sticks and rods, began assaulting us, hurling abuses and issuing threats. Those who tried to save their houses were badly beaten by the group of people as well. They were present in the slum for more than 20 minutes, and escaped after police arrived,” he said.

ACP (Kavi Nagar) Suryabali Maurya said police received information and reached the spot immediately. The initial probe found that Aman Sharma and a friend were travelling through RDC when their scooter hit a minor girl. An argument followed, and Sharma fell after being pushed by someone from the slum, after which he called his acquaintances to the location, he said. “The men who arrived at the spot damaged the slums of those who beat him.

Police arrested 5 people — Aman, Pawan Singh, Ritesh Kumar, Kamal Singh and Vishakha Prajapati — from the spot,” he said. “An FIR has been registered against the accused under BNS sections 191(2) (punishment for rioting), 191(3) (rioting, armed with deadly weapons), 351(2) (punishment for criminal intimidation), 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 324(4) (mischief causing damage to the amount of Rs 50) at Kavi Nagar police station. The accused were sent to jail after being produced in court on Wednesday,” the ACP said.