Was Rinku Sharma killed for collecting donation for Ram Temple?

New Delhi, Feb 12: A 25-year-old man was stabbed to death allegedly by four men following a quarrel at a birthday party in outer Delhi''s Mangolapuri area.

The deceased, identified as Rinku Sharma, an activist of BJP's Yuva Morcha and Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), succumbed to injuries during treatment.

He got into a heated argument with the four men at a birthday party on Wednesday night. The four accused later went to victim''s house and stabbed him with a knife, they said.

All the four accused -- Zahid, Mehtab, Danish and Islam -- were arrested on Thursday, police said.

Both the victim and the accused had an argument over their eatery business which had to be shut down after they started incurring losses, police, said, adding that these facts are being verified.

According to the police, on Wednesday night, when both the victim and accused men were attending the birthday party, an argument broke out between them over their food joints in Rohini. They also slapped and threatened each after which they left.

The two parties had similar tussles over the same issue sometime back as well, police said.

Later, the four men went to Sharma''s house where the victim along with his elder brother were already standing outside with sticks. A scuffle broke out between the two sides again during which the accused stabbed Sharma and fled from the spot, a senior police officer said.

The victim was then rushed to a nearby hospital where he succumbed to his injuries, he said.

During enquiry, it emerged that both the parties had opened their respective eateries in nearby areas in Rohini in October last year. But both were incurring losses and had to be closed down. The two parties blamed each other for the losses and often had heated arguments over the issue, he added.

Sudhanshu Dhama, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer) said, "All the four men have been arrested and a case has been registered against them."

However, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leaders claimed that Sharma was associated with the organisation and was killed because he was collecting donations for Ram Temple at Ayodhya.

"We urge the administration to arrest the culprits without delay and ensure strictest punishment to them," said VHP joint general secretary Surendra Jain.

The police, however, has denied these allegations and said both the parties shared rivalry over their eatery business which ran into losses and had to be shut down.