On Wednesday, 14th August, 2019, a 19-year-old young adult was arrested for killing a University of Delhi (DU) student, Shubham Srivastav, during a confrontation between them in a park at Patel Nagar, New Delhi.
The two had been fighting over the girlfriend of the accused.
The childish banter turned into gruesome murder as was revealed by Aman Soni in his police investigation. Soni got infuriated with the victim, also aged 19, had thrashed him, and then in an attempt to exact revenge, had stabbed him.
Shubham Srivastav, the victim, is a B.A. student in University of Delhi. He was reportedly in a romantic relationship with a girl from his tuition class, and both were not talking due to an argument between the two earlier, resulting in Srivastav not meeting the girl.
The dispute started when on Monday, a classmate saw Srivastav’s former girlfriend with Soni outside the tuition class, and informed him about it. When Soni was investigated, he gave a chronological order of what motivated him to take such a dire step. He said that Srivastav came to him outside the tuition, along with his friends, and intimidated him. He showed Soni a photograph of himself and the girl, and warned him to stay away from her. This statement by the victim led to a quarrel between the two and later Shubham Srivastav and his friends, Shubham Gupta and Lokesh Aggarwal had allegedly thrashed him (Soni).
This brought up a sense of vengeance in Soni, and he was looking for an opportunity to take revenge. The next day, on Tuesday, Srivastav also confronted the girl with the photograph followed by an argument between both. This aggravated Soni more, when the girl informed him about how Srivastav had been acting with her.
It was then and there, that Soni made up his mind to end the dispute completely, unfortunately with the murder of Shubham Srivastav.
Aman Soni and his friends deceived Shubham Srivastav into coming to the Rock Garden park in Patel Nagar in the name of “resolving and sorting the issue”, for once and for all.
Victim’s friend, Shubham Gupta told the police that on Wednesday, the victim received a call from Aman Soni to meet him to resolve the issue, and Srivastav even asked Shubham Gupta and Lokesh Agarwal to accompany him. The trio found some people waiting for them in the park.
When Soni confronted Srivastav, they got into an argument during which Soni pulled out a knife and stabbed Srivastav in the chest. Soni’s friends then tried to intervene to save their friend, however , they were also hindered by Aman’s friends, resulting in injuries being inflicted on them as well.
The victim fell unconscious on the floor of the park as the assailants left the park.
Lokesh Agarwal managed to drag his friends Gupta and Srivastav from the park onto an E-rickshaw and took them to BLK Hospital. While Srivastav died a few hours later, his injured friends are now being treated in Ram Manohar Lohiya hospital.
According to a senior officer, police received information about the scuffle around 9 pm on Tuesday, following which a team was dispatched to the spot.
“Srivastav was taken to a nearby hospital where he was declared brought dead. A case has been registered under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and police are trying to nab the accused, who are absconding. The body has been sent to RML Hospital for autopsy,” the officer said.
On Wednesday night, cops traced the accused after Srivastav’s friends recorded their statements, blaming him for the attack. Police also recovered the CCTV footage from the area near the park, in which Soni can be seen fleeing with his friends. A search has been launched to nab Soni’s friends too. However, the police have found the murder weapon, the knife, used to stab Shubham Srivastav.
The grieved family is under shock and the father says that he wasn’t aware of any relationship that Shubham had.
With inputs from Times of India, India Today, and Press Trust of India.
Feature Image Credits: DU Beat Archives
Chhavi Bahmba