Dentist beaten to death after cricket ball 'hits' passersby

New Delhi

The incident took place late Wednesday night when dentist Pankaj Narang was playing cricket with his eight-year-old son and a nephew in a small space outside his house, a police official said.

Narang's wife is also a doctor and the couple lived with their son at a locality in Vikaspuri.

His sister, brother-in-law and their son had come to his place for Holi celebrations.

Narang took the children outdoor for a game soon after India defeated Bangladesh by one run in the World T20 match.

While playing cricket, the ball allegedly hit two men who were passing by on a motorcycle. This led to a scuffle between the doctor and the duo.

While one of them was identified as Naseer (23), the other was a minor, both residents of a nearby slum cluster.

After the scuffle, the duo left the spot, abandoning their motorbike there, following which the doctor also returned home with the children.

The duo, however, returned with at least 10 other people in a few minutes and the group allegedly attacked the doctor with bats, sticks and rods at his residence.

They allegedly assaulted everyone who came to his rescue and severely thrashed the doctor's brother-in-law, the police official said.

Locals informed the police around 12.45 AM but the accused fled by the time a police team reached there.

The doctor and his brother-in-law were rushed to a hospital, where the former succumbed to his injuries.

Doctors told police that Narang received a deep wound on his Cranium, the part of the skull enclosing the brain.

"We registered a case of murder, attempt to murder, house trespass and rioting against several persons, and formed a team to nab the accused at the earliest. We also obtained CCTV footage from nearby premises which helped us ascertaining identity of the accused," DCP (West) Pushpendra Kumar said.

After a search operation, eight persons were apprehended yesterday, of whom four including the bike-borne minor who was with Naseer turned out to be juvenile.

Naseer and the three other youths, Amir, Ameer and Gopal, all aged around 20 years, were arrested.

Today, the police arrested Naseer's mother Maesar too.

Maesar was visible in the CCTV grab allegedly attacking the doctor with her son and others.

Further interrogation revealed that Maesar allegedly instigated the violence, provoking his son to beat up the doctor, the police official said, adding two more persons have been identified but they are absconding.

Meanwhile, police have provided security to the doctor's family and several officials were deployed outside his residence today.

Investigation into the case is underway and efforts are on to nab the other accused at the earliest, police added.