Delhi road rage: Coffee firm Sleepy Owl’s salesman kills biker with glass bottle

New Delhi: In a road rage incident on the day of Holi, a motorcyclist was murdered in cold blood on a busy road by another biker who smashed a bottle on his head and slit his neck with the glass after their vehicles grazed each other in east Delhi’s Kalyanpuri area.

The assailant Pankaj, 25, a Ghaziabad resident who works as a salesman in a coffee company Sleepy Owl, and his co-rider Jeetu, a resident of Mandawali, were arrested for the murder of Ashish, 25, within four hours of the incident at 6.30 p.m. on Friday, said a police official.

The victim was rushed to a hospital after the clash by his friend accompanying him on the vehicle but he died on the way, the police said.

Ashish, a resident of Ghaziabad, was a tea stall vendor who also owned an outlet in Noida’s Sector 9, police said.

Additional DCP, East, Vineet Kumar, said Pankaj and Jeetu have been arrested on murder charges.

“Their medical report is awaited to confirm if they were drunk at the time of the incident,” he said, adding that witnesses claimed that Pankaj appeared to be under the influence of alcohol when the fight took place.

The police were informed about the killing by the hospital where Ashish was rushed after the incident.

A senior official said several teams were formed to trace the accused and using the registration number of Pankaj’s bike they zeroed in on his home in Ghaziabad and arrested him.

On the day of Holi, the Delhi Traffic Police prosecuted 1,213 motorists for drunken driving during celebrations in the national capital, an official said.

Dinesh Kumar Gupta, Additional Commissioner of Police, Traffic, said that during a special drive between 8 a.m. to midnight on Friday, 2,376 two-wheeler riders were prosecuted for driving without a helmet.

For triple riding, the traffic police prosecuted 573 vehicle owners. Apart from these, 3,068 other tickets were issued for various traffic rule violations, he said.

“A total of 7,230 traffic rule violations were reported on the day of Holi,” said Gupta.

IANS