A minor confrontation over road space escalated into a brutal murder late Thursday night in the Damdama area under the Madhav Nagar police station limits in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh. The victim, 27-year-old Yash Mittal, originally hailed from Tarana and operated a tractor showroom at the Agar Road Mandi while residing with his family in the Rishi Nagar Extension area. Around 2 am between Thursday and Friday, Mittal was driving his car to drop off his friends, including Abhay Vyas and Mangal, at their flats in Sethi Nagar. As their vehicle reached the Damdama turn near the district panchayat office, they encountered a group of seven to eight youths standing right in the middle of the road with their motorcycles.
The situation turned violent when Mittal honked the horn to ask the young men to move aside, prompting them to hurl abuses and refuse to budge. When he honked a second time, the group flew into a rage, smashed the windows of the car, and launched a physical assault on Mittal and his friends inside the vehicle. The confrontation took a lethal turn when the attackers grabbed Mittal and stabbed him in the stomach. Overcome with panic, his five friends managed to drive away from the scene and rushed straight to the Madhav Nagar police station to seek urgent help, informing officers that their companion was still trapped and needed immediate rescue.
Extensive search leads to tragic discovery
Upon receiving the frantic alert, police accompanied the five friends back to the spot, but the attackers had already fled and there was no immediate sign of Mittal. For nearly three hours, police personnel and the terrified friends searched the surrounding area in the dark. Finally, around 5 am, Mittal was found lying unconscious and covered in blood behind a photocopy shop just outside the district panchayat building. He was rushed to a nearby hospital immediately, where attending doctors pronounced him dead upon arrival.
Police action and public procession of suspects
Following the tragedy, law enforcement registered a murder case and identified a total of seven suspects involved in the crime. Four of the accused were swiftly apprehended by authorities. Before presenting them in court, the police took the arrested suspects back to the crime scene. While at the location, some of the accused attempted to display arrogance in front of the gathered public, who expressed immense anger over the brutal killing. In response to the tense situation and public resentment, police officers resorted to caning the suspects on the spot.
The punitive action did not stop there, as the authorities marched the suspects on foot for nearly half a kilometer while continuing to beat them with batons along the way. Stripped of their initial defiance, the accused were seen pleading and begging for forgiveness during the entire march. The suspects were subsequently produced before a court, which granted police a two-day remand for further interrogation and investigation into the remaining culprits.
