Man assaulted on Holi succumbs

New Delhi: "The accused should be given the strictest punishment. They killed my brother for no reason. What will his wife and three childen do now. He was the only bread winner in the family," rues Abdul Khaliq, while waiting for the post-mortem of his brother Abdul Mallik at RML hospital.

Mallik who was admitted to RML hospital with grevious head injuries lost the battle of life 12 days after he was attacked by a group of hooligans on the day of Holi.

Mallik, along with some of his co-workers, was on his way to a mosque in Shakurpur in Subhash place in North West Delhi to offer Friday prayers when the assault took place.

"This is really tragic, things would have certainly escaletd had our elders and reponsible people of the society not intervened and stopped things going out of control.

"Those men attacked the group going to the mosque. This was pathetic," said Mahtab, the owner of the embroidery factory where Mallik worked.

Mallik was on ventilator and succumbed to his injuries on Tuesday evening.

"Doctors came to us around 7.30 pm and told us that my brother's condition has worsened. There are little chances of his survival. Half an hour later, they declared him dead," said Abdul.

Acting swiftly, cops made the arrests on the day of attack itself.

Two men were arrested while four juveniles have been detained. Another juvenile, who was absconding, was apprehended on Tuesday.

Delhi police have now converted the charges of attempt to murder (IPC section 307) to murder (IPC section 302).

"All arrests in the case have been made," said a senior police officer.

Roshan, the mother of three children, had rushed to Delhi and had been camping at Ram Manohar Lohia after the news of her husband's injury reached her. Leaving her two sons aged eight and sox years in Madhubani, Bihar, she carried her three-year-old daughter to Delhi.

Though Mahtab feels the attack was specifically targeted towards the Muslim men, the police say that the hooligans were drunk and targeted anyone randomly they met on the road.