New Delhi: A week after a Congolese national was beaten to death in Vasant Kunj, four separate cases of alleged assault on African nationals were registered in the national capital.
All four incidents took place within a span of an hour (9:30 pm -10:30 pm) in a bylane of Rajpur Khurd village in South Delhi's Chhatarpur area where around 300 African nationals live, reports say.
The victims — three men and four women — said the attackers hurled racial slurs at them and beat them up with iron rods, sticks, bricks and cricket bats, according to The Indian Express.
Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj has said she spoke to Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung about the attacks and was assured that the culprits will be arrested soon.
"I've asked Gen V.K.Singh MOS & Secy Amar Sinha to meet African students who have announced demonstration at Jantar Mantar, MEA said
In two cases, the complainants are women -- one a Uganda national and the other a native of South Africa, in the other two, the complainants are two Nigerian men.
In two cases in which the Nigerian men are involved is "believed" to have taken place following an argument with the locals, a senior police official said.
However, circumstances in the other two cases are not clear, he said.
All four complainants, in their 30s, have been residing in Delhi for past few years, police said.
It is learnt locals objected to the “free lifestyle” of these men and women who stayed in the area.
Police, however, said none of these attacks were planned and neither were they racial in nature.
The attacks on the African nationals come a week after a Congolese national Masonda Ketada Olivier, 29, was beaten to death by three youths on May 20 after a verbal altercation over the hiring of an auto-rickshaw in Vasant Kunj area of south Delhi.
Clarifying on the nature of the attacks, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Ishwar Singh told IANS, "These are all isolated incidents and not planned attacks. There was no element of racism in the attacks. It's not as if there's a public movement against African nationals."
"All four incidents happened at different locations (a kilometre apart), at different times and for different reasons," the DCP said, adding, "Had it been planned the victims would have received major injuries."
According to police, only one African national, named Lockey, received minor injuries on his nose when he fell on a stone on the road and has got one stitch.
The DCP further said, "Being proactive, we took action on our own and filed cases even after all of them refused to lodge police complaint."
On Thursday night, two PCR calls were made to the Delhi Police reporting a brawl in Mehrauli's Rajpur Khurd area, where the African nationals reside.
A senior police official told IANS that the first PCR call was made at 11 p.m. by one Kenneth on Thursday night following a minor brawl with local residents when he was going in his car to a chemist. In the brawl he received minor injuries.
The second PCR call came from one Nigerian national Lockey.
Lockey was allegedly beaten after he intervened to save the driver of an auto, in which he was travelling, from being beaten by a car driver for not giving way to his vehicle.
He fell on the ground and injured his nose.
The DCP said that the suspects have been identified and would be arrested soon.
