New Delhi, March 17: A few days after the January 10 BMW road tragedy, cartoonist Irfan Hussain's car was rammed by a Ford Escort driven by three drunken youths. With the January 10 still fresh in his mind, he chased down the youths, dragged one out and beat him up. ``I was surprised by the way he had reacted. It was unlike him given his temperament,'' a friend of Irfan's said today. ``So I asked him why he had bothered to chase the car or hit the drunken youths. He was very angry and worked up while narrating the incident,'' the friend said.Two drunken youths had driven their BMW car at break neck speed on the night of January 10 killing six people on Lodhi Road. Irfan had said that these rich youths should not be allowed to take things for granted.
``He had that incident in mind when he began to pursue the Ford Escort,'' his friend said.
``We have told the police about the incident and its possible links with the murder. But the police, after taking note of it in the beginning, dropped the angle,'' Irfan's friend said.
A crowd had gathered after Irfan had a verbal exchange with the drunken youths. A police control room van that was passing by had even registered an FIR. But after Irfan's death, the police could not find in its records any FIR filed by Irfan. ``We will ask the police to look into that angle with more seriousness,'' his friend said, adding that neither they nor Irfan's wife Muneera could think of anyone who could have done this to Irfan.
His brother Rizwan, who is in Nagpur with his parents, has, meanwhile, asked for a copy of the post-mortem report of the slain cartoonist. The document has to be submitted to the LIC, friends said.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
Printer-friendly page