By IANS,
New Delhi : A slight collision between their cars and a heated argument led a Jet Airways pilot to mow down the other driver in the upscale Khan Market in south Delhi Tuesday afternoon when thousands of shoppers were present.
The incident took place outside Axis Bank in Khan Market at 1.50 p.m., police said.
Rajiv Jolly, manager of the Amici restaurant in Khan Market, was driving a Hyundai which slightly grazed a Ford Ikon being driven by Vikas Agarwal, a pilot with Jet Airways.
According to witnesses, Jolly was driving out of the market and Agarwal was entering the market when the latter’s car grazed his Hyundai.
An angry Jolly alighted and entered into an argument with Agarwal. He grabbed Agarwal’s collar while he was still seated inside the car and slapped him.
Agarwal, in his attempt to escape, moved the car, hitting Jolly. He nervously tried to reverse and turn the car, but ended up crushing the restaurant manager even more under the wheels. According to police, Agarwal tried four times to reverse and turn, and each time crushed the man even more.
A police team arrived on the spot and apprehended Agarwal. Jolly was rushed to Ram Manohar Lohia hospital where he was pronounced dead.
“Vikas Agarwal, a resident of Patparganj in east Delhi, works as a pilot in Jet Airways. A case of death due to rash and negligent driving has been registered against him,” the police official investigating the case told IANS.
“We are still investigating the matter and have taken down the statement of the accused,” he said.
Khan Market is one of the oldest and most fashionable markets in the capital, with lots of high-end shops and restaurants, and frequented by lot of foreigners every day. It is said to have be the most expensive commercial real estate in the city.
With a bright sun coming out in the city after days of cloudy and bitterly cold weather, the market was thronged by shoppers and packed with cars.
The timing could not have been more ironical. Just when a moving “No One Killed Jessica” was reminding everyone about the ruthless murder that took place in 1999 over a peg of liquor, Capital rage has reared its head again, with two men being killed over trivial incidents.
Both point to the cheap value of human life in the capital.
In probably the capital’s first brush with road rage this year, a man was mercilessly crushed to death Tuesday. The incident saw an airline pilot, drive over a restaurant manager four times. The victim’s crime? His car scratched past the airline pilot’s speckless Ford Ikon.
In an equally astonishing incident, four people killed a 17-year-old man Monday after he denied them a screwdriver at a shop.
And this is not the first time there has been a flare-up over a trivial issue; the history of rage and Delhi goes a long way.
Just last month, a plate of chicken tikka claimed a young life. A software professional in Rohini was shot dead in cold-blood after he accidentally knocked down a plate of chicken tikka.
In another monstrous crime last year, a 42-year-old driver of a chartered bus was mercilessly stoned to death because a restless bunch in a Qualis could not overtake the vehicle.
If that didn’t leave you disgusted enough, there’s more.
According to Delhi Police statistics, a number of murders in 2010 were committed over frivolous issues.
The reasons are as stupid as they come. They range from denial of a cigarette to not getting a particular brand of liquor. It doesn’t matter how silly the reason may sound, Delhi went for the kill every time.
Some other issues included filling water from community taps, objecting to urinating in front of someone’s house and bursting fire crackers at a marriage party.
At a local cricket match, things flamed up so much that it cost someone his life in Mangolpuri. In two other shocking cases, murders were committed over a bidi and over refusal to part with a cigarette.
In August 2007, a doctor is east Delhi was thrashed by two men as his car accidentally banged into their vehicle.
In April last year, an engineer was badly beaten up because he refused to make way for a Mercedes in Delhi’s posh Vasant Kunj.