Argument over Rs 100 costs woman her life

An argument over Rs 100 with the tenant cost a 52-year-old woman her life in the national capital when she was caught in between a fight between her son and the tenant, police said on Wednesday.

Devi Rani breathed her last at around 11pm on Tuesday after she was allegedly beaten and pushed down by her tenant Inderjit and his son Rinku in their multi-storeyed residence in east Delhi's Geeta Colony.

Rani's family and Inderjit were not on good terms for the past five months and the latter was asked to move out of his rented accommodation by March ten, a senior police official said. Rani's son Vijay Kumar, who was staying on the ground floor, had gone to the second floor accommodation of Inderjit and asked him to settle the pending electricity bills which set the ball rolling for an argument.

The sudden provocation for the scuffle was an argument over around Rs 100 in the electricity bill, the official said adding the total outstanding amount to be paid by Inderjit was around Rs 12,000. Inderjit refused to pay the paltry amount led to a heated
argument with Kumar and eventually led to a fight, the official said.

Inderjit's son Rinku, his brother Amarjeet and nephew Sunny, who were present there, also allegedly joined the tenant in beating up Kumar. Hearing the commotion, Rani rushed upstairs where she was allegedly beaten up, the official said and added that in the melee she fell down on the floor.

As she fell down, the official said Amarjeet and Sunny fled from the spot but Kumar managed to catch hold of Inderjit and Rinku and locked them inside a room. Kumar then informed police, who rushed Rani to Swami Dayanand Hospital where doctors declared her brought dead. Inderjit and Rinku were arrested by the police who slapped a case of culpable homicide on them, the official said.

The official said that Rani did not have any external injury marks and doctors suspect that she might have died because of heart attack due to shock. The victim's husband Chandra Bhan was not in the house at the time of incident.

"I had gone out of home. I returned home within five minutes when I heard that there was a fight. But within such a short time everything happened. I am really shocked," Bhan said.

Murders due to sudden provocations seem to be increasing in the national capital with police statistics showing that 17 per cent of 518 killings last year were accounted under this head. In 2007, sudden provocation was the reason for 14 per cent of the 469 murders.