Police investigate at the scene of the businessman's murder.
A 51-year-old businessman was stabbed to death allegedly by four people when he confronted them for harassing his daughter in Delhi's Moti Nagar area on Saturday night. The victim's family members claimed that passersby remained apathetic through it all, shooting the incident on their mobile phones instead of trying to help him.
Police have taken the four accused - two of them minors - into custody. The businessman's 21-year-old son, who was also injured in the incident, has been admitted to a local hospital in a critical condition.
Police said the victim and his 26-year-old daughter were returning from a hospital on a scooter that night when the four accused - who reside in the neighbourhood - passed lewd comments at her. He dropped her home and went back to the spot to confront the accused. Concerned about his safety, the daughter sent her brother after him.
When the daughter did not hear from them for a while, she rushed to the spot only to find that a fight had erupted. "I found them attacking my father and brother with stones... they even threatened to get a gun and shoot us all. I begged them to stop, but they grabbed me by the neck and pulled my hair. I saw them stabbing my father and brother with knives," she recalled.
Nobody, with the exception of a sole neighbour, tried to intervene. "I rescued the daughter first. There were other people at the spot too - watching, taking videos on their mobile phones - but none of them wanted to help. I somehow managed to take the father to the hospital, but it was too late already," he said.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal condemned the incident in a tweet. "The Delhi Police must take strongest action against the guilty," he said.
The victim, who owned a electronics business, leaves behind his elderly parents, his wife aged 50 and three children. "The two daughters are yet to be married off, and the son - who is still in college - is even younger. It will be difficult to manage things in the household, given that he had invested money in the market that cannot be recovered now. He was the sole breadwinner for the family, and we are very concerned," a relative said.
A local resident complained that the area gets very unsafe at night. "I don't like this area. After 9 pm, people get drunk and come out on the streets. I always make sure I get home before eight," she said.