Pickpockets Stabbed Him While People Were Busy Taking Photos, Victim's Brother Recounts Horror

Kehte hain Dilli dilwaalon ki (Delhi belongs to the large-hearted), but nobody here helps anyone,¡± sobs Sandeep Kumar, a day after his brother, Amarjeet, 28, was dragged out of a bus and stabbed to death on a busy road near Delhi zoo by a gang of pickpockets.

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Speaking to TOI on Tuesday, the man, who hails from UP¡¯s Ambedkar Nagar district, recounts the 30 minutes of horror that changed the lives of the Kumars ¡ª from the moment Amarjeet raised an alarm when he saw a youth lifting Sandeep¡¯s phone in the bus to a frantic chase down an alley ending with Amarjeet¡¯s wife Manju pinning down two of the pickpockets and handing them over to police.

¡°Everyone sat in the bus as mere spectators: some ducked under the seats in fear while others made videos of my brother being killed¡­ it was as if they were watching a film being shot,¡± says Sandeep, his first trip to the city having turned into a nightmare. ¡°I will take them (Manju and her son) back to our home town so that they can restart their life away from this city they won¡¯t ever be able to call home. I have never seen a city as ruthless as Delhi.¡±

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Who keeps a check on people who enter public transport with arms on them? There¡¯s a chance anyone might get attacked if exposed to such a situation,¡± Sandeep says. ¡°My elder brother was killed in front of his little boy who is still scared to talk and is continuously crying. Had it not been his wife who bravely fought these criminals and despite seeing her husband lying in a pool of blood, didn¡¯t lose the courage and caught hold of them, I am sure these men would have been running free. She, too, was attacked with a knife. She is still grieving as we take Amarjeet¡¯s remains to our village. What will she do with the bravery award from police now when my brother has been killed.¡±

Amarjeet lived at a rented house in Nilothi village of outer Delhi with his wife Manju, whom he married five years ago, and three-year-old son Adit. ¡°They were planning to go on a short trip to some hill station during summers, but that plan shall never be fulfilled,¡± says Rajkumar, Amarjeet¡¯s brother-in-law.

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Police said that the accused identified as Suraj (20), Sumit (25) and Ajit (24) live in Shahdara and have criminal cases against them in the past as well. They had bought the knife with which they attacked Amarjeet and Manju, from Daryaganj on Friday. Two more, Vipin (24) and Javed (18), have been arrested. An i20 that they used for committing the crime has also been impounded.