Brigadier, son assaulted in southwest Delhi after objecting to drinking in car; cop suspended
New Delhi (PTI): An Army brigadier and his son were allegedly assaulted, while his wife was threatened by a group of men in southwest Delhi after the officer objected to two people consuming alcohol inside a parked car near their house, police said on Monday.
The incident took place on Saturday night when two men sitting inside a high-end luxury vehicle were drinking liquor outside the officer's residence in the Vasant Enclave area.
When the brigadier objected, a group of men gathered at the spot, assaulted him and his son, and threatened his wife.
Taking cognisance of the matter, Delhi Police has registered an FIR and initiated an inquiry.
"We have registered an FIR. The accused persons are being traced. During preliminary enquiry, a lapse was found on the part of the inspector/investigation, and he has been sent to district lines," police said in a statement.
The Indian Army has also taken cognisance of the incident.
"The authorities in the Indian Army have taken serious cognisance of the case. A Military Police team has been directed to assist the officer. Delhi Police has been approached for expeditious investigation and action on priority," it read.
Several videos of the incident, recorded by family members, have surfaced on social media, showing two men inside a car holding a liquor bottle.
Speaking to media persons, the brigadier's son, Tejas Singh Arora, said, "On Saturday night, after dinner, my father, Brigadier PS Arora, and I were out for a walk. We saw two men inside a luxury car openly drinking and smoking."
He said that they politely asked the men to move elsewhere, as it was a residential area and public drinking was inappropriate.
"The moment we requested them to leave, they became hostile and dared us to call anyone. My father then asked me to call the police control room," he said.
Arora alleged that when police personnel arrived, they refused to record their complaint. Instead, one of the men spoke to the officer over the phone, after which the officer told them he would deal with the matter later.
"Soon after, seven to eight men arrived in two vehicles and started thrashing us and abusing my mother. They were associates of the accused," he claimed.
He told the reporters that he was repeatedly assaulted for around 15 minutes in the presence of police personnel.
"Five to six men kept beating me continuously, while my father was also surrounded. We had called the police, but they did not intervene," he alleged.
Tejas sustained injuries to his face, neck and palm. He alleged that the responding officer remained inside his vehicle and did not offer any assistance.
The brigadier's wife also alleged that the officer present at the spot refused to intervene despite her requests.
"The officer did not step in as the men continued assaulting my son. When I pleaded for help, he said he could act only after his team arrived," she claimed.
She said that after the attackers left, the officer refused to take them to the police station and instead opened the boot of the vehicle.
"You are not the kind of people who deserve to sit on the seats," she quoted the officer as saying.
At the police station, the family claimed they faced further harassment.
"They kept us waiting for about half an hour. A woman officer told us they did not have 'free time' as we had called the PCR multiple times. When my husband said we were both in uniform and deserved basic respect, she became aggressive," the brigadier's wife told the reporters.
She also claimed that despite her son bleeding, the police insisted on an MLC report before registering the complaint and did not provide a vehicle to take them to the hospital.
"Eventually, my husband took our son to the Army Hospital himself for treatment and X-rays," she alleged.
A Submariner Veteran GeoStrategy Entrepreneur Environmentalist, Ashok Bijalwan, posted the entire matter on his social media handle X.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
