: A 22-year-old man was killed when the police opened fire at a mob in “self-defence” at Shahbad Dairy in Outer Delhi on Thursday afternoon. The clash also left 17 policemen injured.
The mob had turned violent after a three-year-old boy was run over by a loaded private school bus in the Metro Vihar area. Locals alleged that the driver, Mukesh, was speaking on the phone at the time of the accident.
Locals pulled out the driver and thrashed him before he was rescued by a police team. The locals also damaged the bus, but the police intervened and prevented them from torching the CNG-run vehicle.
This infuriated the locals further who then resorted to stone pelting and even tried to chase away the dozen-odd strong police team.
The police claimed that they were surrounded from all sides by the mob because of which they had to first fire in the air. When that did not scare away the mob, the police fired in their direction to keep them away.
One bullet hit a local youth, Waseem, who, the police claim, was part of the mob. His family and locals, however, claimed he was only trying to flee to safety after locking his shop.
Waseem’s death triggered further rioting and the police had to summon additional force and fire several rounds of tear-gas shells. The situation was brought under control by evening.
