Cop’s son among 2 held for fatal attack on Noida teenager

NOIDA: The family of the 15-year-old boy who died of fatal injuries sustained during an attack by two customers who had come to buy vegetables from him last Saturday has accused the police of going easy on the suspects, questioning why the charges were filed for culpable homicide (Section 304, IPC) and not murder (Section 302).
The boy, they alleged, was attacked when his two brothers had gone to the police to file a complaint.Yet, the two suspects were arrested on Monday, two days after the assault on Rohit. One of them, Ashish Singh, is the son of a head constable posted in Gautam Budh Nagar.
Rohit studied in the eighth standard of Shri Mishrilal Adarsh Inter College and had been helping his family run their vegetable cart in the city’s Phase II area since physical classes were suspended during the lockdown. His two elder brothers Ajay and Akash were also beaten up by Ashish and Likhit Raghav, the family alleged. A collision between Ashish and Likhit’s bike and Rohit’s cart triggered a heated argument, which escalated.
“My son apologised and even touched their feet, but was still attacked. When Ajay and Akash went to file a complaint against them with the police, they caught hold of Rohit and assaulted him. We don’t know if it was a stick or a rod. There was a gash on the left side of his skull. They left him and fled the spot,” Rohit’s father Maan Singh told TOI.
Rohit’s cousin Ashok alleged when the argument started, Ashish and Likhit used helmets to beat up the three brothers. “They later returned and targeted Rohit. Someone informed Ajay and Akash when they were at Phase II police station to report the matter,” Ashok said. “No policeman arrived even as they claimed they were calling an ambulance. Later, they took Rohit to the Bhangel community health centre (CHC) in a police vehicle. There was no electricity at the CHC at that time. We took him to Yatharth hospital, from where he was referred to Safdarjung hospital. We did not have enough money for treatment at the private hospital,” Ashok added.
Pointing out that Ashish and Likhit returned with the specific intention of attacking Rohit, Maan Singh asked why Section 302 had not been applied in the case.
DCP (central Noida) Harish Chander said, “The FIR is being converted to relevant sections and suitable action is being taken.”