NEW DELHI: A desperate man’s bid for freedom ended in tragedy. A 27-year-old man was taken into custody after attacking his parents and uncle with a knife and when he attempted to escape the police by leaping over a wall at the Mayapuri police station in west Delhi, he fell and sustained a fatal head injury. A magisterial inquiry has been ordered in the case.
Police claimed on Saturday that so far they had not received his medical records to confirm whether Anshuman Taneja, the deceased, had been receiving any medical treatment before the knife attack but they were probing if he was of “unsound mind”.
Taneja lived with his family on the first floor of a four-storey building in Mayapuri and was unemployed. His father, Brahm Prakash, a retired naval officer, his mother, Sunita, and his uncle, Ashwini, were being treated in hospital for stab injuries.
Police received a PCR call on Nov 26 at 6am about dacoits having entered a house in Lajwanti Garden. A team from the local police station rushed to the scene but found instead that Taneja had stabbed his parents and uncle with a kitchen knife. He was waving the knife and the floor was covered in blood when the cops arrived.
The investigators suspect that he first attacked his parents and then this uncle when the latter came down from the upper floor on hearing a commotion. The three received injuries on the neck, hands and waist.
Taneja was taken into police custody and two cops were assigned to watch over him. “He was first taken to a hospital for a check-up and then to Mayapuri police station,” a police officer said. There, Taneja asked for water. When one of his escorts went to get water, Taneja pushed the other policeman and jumped over the wall at the police station, which is 4-5 metres high. He fell and injured his head and was taken to the hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries on Nov 28.
“All due procedures are being followed in the investigation, and the family members are being kept updated about the process,” police said. When asked whether Anshuman was mentally unstable, an officer said that their observation on this was based on the events, but no treatment records had been found. The family hasn’t been very cooperative on that front, the officer said.
The officer said action on the two policemen present with Taneja at the time of the incident will be based on the outcome of the magisterial inquiry. A medical board will be formed to carry out the post-mortem of the deceased.