A 41-year-old dentist here was beaten to death by a group of people after a cricket ball he and his son were playing with hit a motorcyclist on the road, police said on Friday.
The horrific killing took place just after midnight Wednesday in west Delhi's Vikaspuri area when Pankaj Narang and his son were playing cricket inside their house.
A heated argument took place as the ball flew out of their balcony and hit a motorcycle rider.
The rider called some 10 of his friends, who dragged the dentist out of his house and beat him mercilessly with wooden sticks and bricks, leading to his death, police said, quoting the victim's family.
As Narang collapsed, the attackers fled from the spot.
Police said a relative of the doctor, who was also badly attacked, was being treated in a private hospital and his condition was stated to be out of danger.
Police arrested five people, including a woman, and apprehended four juveniles for the attack.
The woman, in her 30s, was identified as Mayassar. Two of the accused have identical name: Aamir Khan. The other two were Gopal Singh and Naseer Khan.
A police officer told IANS that Naseer Khan was one of the prime accused and he was riding the motorcycle with a juvenile on the pillion.
Naseer, however, disputed the ball story and told police that it was dentist who picked up a quarrel with him.
According to him, Narang stopped him and told him not to ride the motorcycle at high speed at night, especially in residential areas.
This led to a heated argument -- and scuffles. Naseer left the spot and returned with his associates, said the officer, providing Naseer's account.
All the accused reside in a Vikaspuri slum cluster. "The four male accused are in the age group of 20-21 years," an officer said. A hunt is on for some others involved in the crime.
"We are scrutinising CCTV footage and trying to find out if those arrested were ever involved in any crime," the officer added.
