Police reported that five people were detained on Monday for reportedly lighting an Army Major's car on fire after the latter complained about loud music being played late at night at a cafe in the city's Gomti Nagar neighbourhood.
According to the police, Major Abhijeet Singh's home is not far from Café Milano, which on Sunday night had a birthday celebration on its patio and was playing loud music. He went over to the owner about midnight and asked him to turn down the noise. He complained to the police about the party around 12.30 am, since the music was still playing loudly.
"I patiently waited for the good sense to prevail over them before asking them to lower the volume around 11.30 p.m. as it was making me and my old parents and other residents uncomfortable," he said in his FIR.
One of the participants came down and agreed to stop the music, but he did not do the same. After waiting for nearly an hour, Abhijeet called the police control room around 12.22 a.m.
"When the police team visited the scene, they stopped playing the music. However, in 20 minutes they again started playing it again, forcing me to dial the police control room again," said Abhijeet.
"This time, all the above-named persons surrounded me in the presence of policemen and pushed me to the side to show their might. They told me that they know my house and asked me to be ready to face the consequences," the victim said.
He said that he ignored their threat, thinking the police would deal with them.
"Around 3 a.m., I heard some sound near my car which I had parked outside my house. I came out of the house to see my car up in flames. I dialled the police control. By the time the fire was doused, the car was damaged," he said.
(To receive our E-paper on WhatsApp daily, please click here. To receive it on Telegram, please click here. We permit sharing of the paper's PDF on WhatsApp and other social media platforms.)