A man allegedly hit two motorcycle-borne persons with his car as they objected to him smoking in front of them in south Delhi, following which one of the duo succumbed to injuries today.
The accused, identified as Rohit Krishna Mahanta, was arrested on Wednesday evening from the Apollo hospital. On Saturday, he was arrested for rash driving, but was later granted bail, police said.
Initially, the police had said that they have added IPC section 304 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder with a maximum term of life imprisonment) to the FIR but after conducting an investigation, the police registered a case of murder against the accused, who is a practising lawyer under the standing counsel of the Assam government.
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Gurpreet and Maninder Singh, aged 21 and 22 respectively, had gone near AIIMS for filming a documentary on pavement dwellers in the national capital on Saturday, their families claimed.
While they were having dinner near the Safdarjung Hospital, a man came and started smoking on their faces, witnesses told police.
The duo objected to the man blowing smoke on their faces and asked him to not do so, the family members claimed, adding the man, who was inebriated, threatened them with dire consequences.
Gurpreet and Maninder decided to leave from there since they did not want to escalate the issue, they said.
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However, the man followed them and hit them with his car near AIIMS. The driver also went on to hit two other vehicles -- an autorickshaw and a cab.
The duo was rushed to hospital. Gurpreet succumbed to injuries today while the other victim is undergoing treatment at the hospital, police said.
After Gurpreet's death, police have added section 302 (punishment for murder, punishable with capital punishment) instead of IPC section 304 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder with a maximum term of life imprisonment) to the FIR.
"Maninder was unconscious after the incident. After he regained consciousness and narrated the sequence of events, it was thought that sections 302 and 30 could both be applied. However, we decided to include stricter charges of murder in the case," said a senior police officer.
Mahanta's father is a professor with one of the IITs.
(PTI)
