Man in coma after road rage assault

Hit repeatedly with helmet over wrongly parked car which wasn't even his

A 38-year-old man is in coma after being attacked with a helmet over a car parked outside Rajouri Garden police station in west Delhi late on Sunday.

The attacker believed that the car belonged to Prakash Kumar, who is now on ventilator support. But he was himself waiting for the car owner to turn up.

Prakash, who hails from Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district, is undergoing treatment at B L Kapur Hospital. In the capital, he works with an agency distributing Bengaluru-based Eastern Condiments’ products.

Prakash’s friend Joy told Deccan Herald that he was in Rajouri Garden on Sunday to meet friends Sri Kumar, Gopal, Shaji and Rajesh. “Prakash went there on a motorcycle. The incident occurred after they met for around 30 minutes and were returning home at 10 pm,” Joy said.

When Prakash went back to his motorcycle, he found a wrongly parked car which blocked the exit. A woman was sitting in the passenger’s side of the car. Prakash spoke to the woman and requested her to move the car.

“At the same time, a man came there on a motorcycle with a woman riding pillion. The car was also blocking the way of his motorcycle,” Joy added. The man was later identified as local resident Mangat Ram, and his wife.

As Prakash was speaking with the woman sitting in the car, Mangat waved towards Prakash and told him to remove the car. In a fit of rage, Mangat went towards the car and repeatedly hit his helmet on Prakash’s head.

“The man attacked without any warning on which Prakash collapsed there,” Joy said.
Prakash’s friends rushed to help him and Mangat’s friends also gathered at the spot. It is alleged that Mangat and his friends also thrashed Prakash’s friends before fleeing from the spot.

“Prakash’s friends informed his brother-in-law Manish, who also lives in the neighbourhood. Manish and Sri Kumar then took Prakash to Guru Gobind Singh Hospital in an autorickshaw,” a police officer added.

He was shifted from there to Safdarjung Hospital, and later to B L Kapur Hospital, where his wife Maya is a nurse. They live with two daughters in a rented house in west Delhi’s Shivaji Enclave.

Maya told Deccan Herald that Prakash has been in coma since the attack.
Doctors told Maya that his life is not in danger now, but cannot say when he will get out of the coma. “He is on ventilator support,” Maya said.

A case under section 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) of the Indian Penal Code has been filed on the basis of Sri Kumar’s statement with Rajouri Garden police station.
Police have arrested Mangat Ram and raids are being conducted to nab some of his friends and neighbours.

This is the third incident of an attack with a helmet in less than a month.

On May 10, a 42-year-old DTC driver was beaten to death by a motorcyclist in west Delhi’s Mundka after the bus grazed the two-wheeler from behind, while a 40-year-old businessman was bludgeoned to death by four assailants in Connaught Place’s Shankar Market on May 20.