Uttar Pradesh: School teacher beaten to death over parking dispute in Varanasi, all accused held

LUCKNOW: A senior teacher of a reputed public school was beaten to death with bricks and rods by three men over a petty issue of car parking in Kedar Colony of Varanasi late on Thursday evening. The accused, who happened to be the neighbours of the victim, were arrested. The teacher Dr Praveen Jha, 48, from Sunbeam School was called by the culprits over the phone asking him to move his car on late Thursday night. As he was about to do it, the accused started arguing with him. They first kicked and punched him before crushing his head with bricks. When the guard tried to save him, he was pushed away. As the teacher fell unconscious after the assault, the accused fled the scene. After this, the guard informed the teacher's wife about the incident. The family rushed the victim to BHU hospital where doctors declared him dead upon arrival. Doctors said the death was due to a severe head injury. The incident occurred on Thursday night at 10:30 pm in the Matru Chhaya Apartment located Kabirnagar locality under Bhelupur police station area. Upon receiving information about the incident, ACP Gaurav Kumar from Bhelupur reached the spot with the force. The police conducted raids at various places in search of the accused. At 3 am, the attackers were caught by the police. Bottles of alcohol and cigarette packets were recovered from the vehicle of the accused. As per the local sources, teacher Praveen Jha came to the apartment in a WagonR car at 10:30 pm. Parking the car in the parking lot in the basement, he went to his flat. A little later, Adarsh Singh, one of the accused, entered the apartment and started honking the horn. He punched and kicked teacher's car and called two more persons from outside. He called the teacher on the phone and asked him to come down and move the car. The teacher agreed as well. As the victim was moving his car, Adarsh Singh and his two accomplices started arguing with him and the dispute escalated leading all the three men to beat the teacher. Later, in a fit of rage, they picked up a brick and struck him relentlessly. Then they got a rod and hit the victim till the fell on the ground. When the guard tried to intervene, the accused pushed him away and left the scene. According to ACP Gaurav Kumar, all the accused have been arrested. The other two accused are residents of Chandauli. However, during the interrogation, Adarsh, the prime accused, claimed that he was under the influence of alcohol at the time of incident and didn't understand anything. Meanwhile, the local sources said that Adarsh had been living alone in flat number 202 of the apartment. His father, DR Singh, is a professor at the Agriculture University in Bihar. About 15 years ago, he had bought a flat in Matru Chhaya apartment which was being used by Adarsh for the last six months. The residents of the apartment said that Adarsh used to come in different vehicles and often picked up fight with residents. The sources said that there were 20 flats in Matru Chhaya Apartment with parking facility for 16 only. Praveen Jha had two houses on the third floor. His in-laws live in one, and he lived with his wife in the other flat. The victims elder son Aditya Jha works in a private company in Bengaluru while the younger one, Udit Jha, is pursuing MBA in Dehradun. The teacher bought both flats in 2012.