Unani practitioner’s murder in Delhi: 2 more minors held

The Delhi Police on Friday apprehended two more minors in connection with the shocking case where two minor boys shot dead an Unani practitioner at a health facility on Thursday.
With Friday’s detentions, police have now nabbed three minors in the case. The first minor – the alleged shooter – was apprehended on Thursday itself, police said.
During interrogation, the three accused told police that two of them were allegedly “humiliated” by the practitioner over the payment of treatment, which instigated them to execute the murder.
At around 2am on Thursday, two minor boys posing as patients walked into a health facility in Jaitpur Extension and shot dead 54-year-old Javed Akhtar inside Nima Hospital where he worked. According to the FIR, the two boys first visited the hospital around 10pm on Wednesday, and one of them had an injury to the toe, which was covered with bandages. They claimed to have got the dressing done at the same hospital and wanted it changed. However, they left the clinic and returned around 1am on Thursday, and when directed to Akhtar’s cabin, they walked in and shot him dead.
Deputy commissioner of police (south east) Rajesh Deo said that a 17-year-old who had an accident on September 21 in Faridabad and came to Nima Hospital for treatment. “He was accompanied by another juvenile. Akhtar gave him treatment and subsequently raised a bill of ₹1,200. This was disputed by the minors, who alleged that they were being overcharged. This led to a heated argument. The injured finally paid ₹400 and left the hospital,” Deo said adding that the 17-year-old revealed during the investigation that he was “rebuked and humiliated by Akhtar and the hospital staff”.
According to police, after about 10 days, the injured minor, a resident of Jafrabad, went again with his aunt to get the bandages removed, but the staff and Akhtar allegedly denied and rebuked him again.
“The injured decided to take revenge and recruited two of his friends, including the one he first visited the hospital with, to kill Akhtar. He also provided a country-made pistol,” Deo said. The gun was procured by one Babu who stays in Jaitpur, for whom a manhunt is now underway, he said.
The minors were produced before the juvenile justice board, and the weapon of offence was recovered, police said.
On Thursday, however, police shared a different version of events and were probing the case from two angles after interrogating the hospital staff. Senior officers earlier said that Akhtar was in a relationship with one of the staffers, and her husband was aware of the relationship, which may have triggered the killing. The female staffer’s daughter, senior officers had said, told them that the practitioner used to sexually assault her, which she told the shooter – her alleged boyfriend. “The 14-year-old girl earlier said this but later retracted from her statement,” a senior police officer said.