How a parking dispute snowballed into stir by Delhi Police personnel

It was an alleged parking dispute between a group of lawyers and a salon owner in North East Delhi’s Rohtash Nagar area last month, which ended in the transfer of Manasvi Vashishta, ACP of the Gandhi Nagar subdivision, and the SHO of Gandhi Nagar police station. The action then triggered an unprecedented protest on Monday by around 100 personnel outside their own police headquarters.

A confrontation allegedly took place on October 23 when a parked motorcycle blocked the access to a salon in Rohtash Nagar. The salon owner, Sheetal Thakur, and her husband, Rahul Thakur, said they asked the person who had parked the bike to move it.

According to Sheetal’s sister, Shweta Bharti, the exchange escalated into an argument. “They said, ‘This is not your father’s road,’” Shweta claimed, recounting the confrontation. This happened around 11 am. Around 4:30 pm, Shweta alleged, a group of lawyers returned to the salon, vandalised it and assaulted Sheetal, who is eight months pregnant.

The family dialled up the police helpline number and went to Shahdara police station to lodge a complaint. However, Shweta claimed, their complaint was not turned into an FIR. The family was instead asked to submit a written complaint, which they did.

According to Shweta, around the same time, two lawyers entered the police station and began assaulting her husband and brother-in-law Rahul. She claimed that police personnel tried to intervene but the duo kept hitting them.

The family alleges that a case was registered on the lawyer’s complaint, while no FIR was registered on their complaint.

Shweta said her husband and brother-in-law were subsequently called to the police station by the investigating officer. They went there the following day but found a large gathering of lawyers. It was the same group, according to her, which later misbehaved with the ACP and SHO.

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The two left the premises and have not returned home since, according to the sisters, who said the family has been unable to contact her husband. The sisters have since approached senior police officers, including the DCP and the SHO, seeking action and access to the CCTV footage. DCP Shahdara RP Meena did not respond to queries by The Indian Express.

On Monday, Sheetal and Shweta reached the police headquarters after learning about the protest by police personnel. They said they had come to support the ACP and the SHO, alleging that the two officers had intervened to protect their family.

Sheetal said the related CCTV footage from the police station should be seized and examined in its entirety to establish what happened. “The entire truth will come out once the footage is seen,” Sheetal said.