On 27th May shocking news had emerged from Delhi about an e-rickshaw driver named Ravindra Kumar getting beaten to death after he had objected to two people urinating outside the Gate number 4 of the GTB Nagar Metro station. Incidentally the public restroom was only 5 meters away from the spot and Ravindra had even offered to pay for their use. Apparently after the initial argument, the duo had returned a few hours later with 10-15 of their friends and after tracking Ravindra beat him to death with iron knuckles and stones wrapped in towels.
The duo who were urinating have since then been arrested and it turns out that one of the accused was Shekhar, a student in Delhi University, and other was a juvenile. During the interrogation, the DU student apparently claimed that he had felt humiliated after the driver had offered to fund their usage of the public toilet.
This incident had prompted condemnation from even Prime Minister Modi who had directed the authorities to bring the culprits to book and also announced an ex-gratia of 1 lakh for the family of the deceased driver. The Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu has since visited the family of the deceased and had tweeted that the driver was promoting Swaccha Bharat Abhiyan via his objection.
Now almost 10 days later, another such criminal incident has emerged from Delhi.
A 21 years old man was reportedly stabbed to death after he objected to another such illegal activity. The deceased named Rahul and his mother were caretakers of two public toilets in Delhi’s Nangloi area. The mother had reportedly seen three people taking drugs in one of the toilets and had objected to it. The trio didn’t like it very much and threatened her with dire consequences.
They came true with their threat and some time later came back and attacked her. This prompted her son to try and save her which resulted in him getting stabbed repeatedly. The gravely injured Rahul was rushed to the hospital but was declared dead on arrival. The two of the accused named Salman and Shahid have now been apprehended by the police.
Such incidents raise very serious questions about the safety of honest citizens who were just doing their civic duty in trying to prevent unauthorized activities from happening in public places. It also remains to be seen as to what deterrents would be placed by authorities in preventing such murderous acts as if these keep continuing any good Samaritan would think twice before prodding any individual to mend his ways.
