A 48-year-old man died after an alleged physical altercation over senior-citizen seats inside a Delhi Metro train, leading to the arrest of a former IAS officer and his son, police said. The incident occurred on October 8 and the arrests were reported on October 12.
The accused, 65-year-old Sanjay Pratap Singh and his 36-year-old son, Sidharth Singh, both residents of Noida, Uttar Pradesh, have been arrested by the Delhi Metro Police. They have been booked under Section 105 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), relating to culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and Section 3(5), concerning common intention.
According to the preliminary police enquiry, the deceased, Pawan Sharma, was travelling with his mother, Durga Devi, towards Yamuna Vihar at around 5.47 p.m. on October 8. The two were seated on seats designated for senior citizens when the accused boarded the train at Mandi House Metro station.
A disagreement reportedly began over the reserved seats and later escalated into a physical altercation. Sharma was allegedly slapped and pushed during the incident, according to the police account cited in the report. When the train reached Supreme Court Metro station, Sharma reportedly became unconscious on the platform.
Sharma was taken to Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital along with his mother, where he was declared brought dead. The Supreme Court Metro police station received information and sent personnel to the hospital, but Sharma had already been declared dead by the time they arrived.
The case was registered on October 9 on the basis of a statement from Sharma’s mother. The police subsequently arrested Singh and his son, who have been remanded to judicial custody for 14 days. Further investigation into the circumstances of the altercation and Sharma’s death is underway.
Singh, a 1984-batch IAS officer, had previously been arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation in December 2015 in an alleged bribery case. He was accused of demanding and accepting a bribe of ₹2.2 lakh from the owner of a manpower agency supplying security guards and other staff to the Delhi government’s Department for Welfare of SC, ST and Minorities, where he was serving as Principal Secretary at the time. The current case remains under investigation by the Delhi Metro Police.
