NEW DELHI: A 24-year-old businessman who sustained injuries under mysterious circumstances at Tilak Nagar in West Delhi on Thursday died in the evening at Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Hospital. While a case of murder has been registered, the relatives of the deceased alleged that the police had initially tried to hush up the matter. A medical board has been set up to conduct an autopsy to determine the cause of his death.

According to the police, Pankaj Mallik, and his friends, Sita Ram, Satish, Goldy and Vipin, had gathered on the third floor office of their friend Pankaj Singh on Wednesday afternoon. They were consuming liquor when Pankaj called up one Gaurav, who runs a gymnasium in the area, and had a heated exchange with him over some issue. The duo had a fight over some issue a few days ago.

According to a version available with the police, Pankaj, who was in an inebriated state, turned violent and apparently smashed a glass-door with his right hand and sustained a deep cut in the wrist and started bleeding. Vipin tried to stop the bleeding by tying his shirt around Pankaj's wrist.

Meanwhile, Gaurav contacted Sub-Inspector Sharad Kohli and told him that Pankaj had threatened him.

Kohli then reached the place and saw Pankaj in an injured state. He took Pankaj to DDU Hospital around 8-15 p.m., where he was administered three bottles of blood. Around 11-30 p.m. when he was being taken to the operation theatre, Pankaj succumbed to his injury.

The police said before Sub-Inspector Kohli reached the spot, Vipin and Sita Ram allegedly entered Gaurav's gymnasium and destroyed his belongings at Pankaj's instance.

The other version of the incident is that Pankaj was murdered. His brother-in-law, Deepak Sharma, claimed that he had joined his friends at Pankaj Singh's office where he was overpowered and his hand was slashed with a broken alcohol bottle.

"It is very surprising that Sub-Inspector Kohli was brought to the spot by Gaurav," he said, adding that the culprits had tried to create an alibi by destroying things in the gymnasium, where the police came across bloodstains on the walls.

"No one can sustain such a wrist injury by smashing a glass-door with his hand. There was blood all over the place where the incident occurred which suggests that Pankaj had offered resistance when attacked. Also, it is surprising that it took Sub-Inspector Kohli over an hour to take Pankaj to the hospital which is just 10-minutes away from where the incident occurred," said Mr. Sharma.

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