An argument over hiring an auto-rickshaw ended with three men beating a 29-year-old Congolese man to death late on Friday in South Delhi’s Vasant Kunj.
The victim has been identified as Masonda Ketada Olivier, a French teacher at a private institute in South Extension. He has been in India on a student visa since 2012.
One of the suspected killers, 23-year-old Mobin Azad Saifi, who has a criminal background, was arrested within 12 hours of the incident. The other two have been identified, but are on the run.
Olivier was murdered while he was returning from a party in Kishangarh village, opposite Vasant Kunj. His two friends had dropped him outside the Kishangarh village at 11.40 p.m. on Friday.
Argument
While the friends headed to a nearby cigarette shop, Olivier hailed a passing auto. “Around the same time, three drunken men too approached the auto and insisted that they would hire the vehicle. That led to a heated argument between Olivier and the men,” said DCP (South) Ishawar Singh.
Olivier managed to get into the auto, but he was pulled out by the suspects and assaulted. Olivier fought back, but the assailants proved too much for him and he was beaten badly. The CCTV footage shows Olivier being chased by the killers for almost 20 metres and then struck on the head with a large stone.
The PCR was called and he was rushed to the AIIMS trauma centre but was declared brought dead. A case of murder was registered at the Vasant Kunj police station.
An alert constable, Kartar, identified Saifi from CCTV footage recovered near the crime, showing the killers running, one of them with a stone in his hand.
