Four arrested after brawl over a cigarette at Garden Galleria mall in Noida

Four people were arrested on Monday in connection with a brawl reported from Garden Galleria mall in Noida’s Sector 38 on Friday, videos of which were widely shared on social media over the weekend, senior police officers said.

Although, initially it was thought that the fight took place over the recently announced Lok Sabha election results, police on Monday said the dispute was over a cigarette.

“The suspects have been identified as Amit Pratap Singh, 30, and Ankit Singh, 25, both residents of Aryan Tower in Sector 73, Noida, Shubham, 30, who goes by a single name, a resident of Sector 79 in Noida, and Peeyush Sharma, 26, a resident of Gandhi Nagar, Delhi. They all work at private companies in Delhi-NCR.” said a senior police officer, adding that the suspects revealed that on Friday night they had gone to a pub at Garden Galleria Mall.

“While partying at the pub, a woman from a group of friends visiting the pub approached a man for a cigarette and a dispute broke out over this. The group who had come with the woman soon got involved and a fight broke out between two groups inside the pub,” said Anuj Kumar, sub-inspector, Great India Place Mall (GIP) police outpost in-charge.

He further said that when pub security guards observed that the fight was escalating, they asked both groups to leave the pub. But the heated arguments between the two groups continued outside as well and they assaulted each other while hurling abuses.”

Security guards at GIP tried to diffuse the tension and directed them to leave the mall.

A 50-second video of the incident went viral on social media platforms on Sunday morning. It shows seven to eight people assaulting each other while security guards are trying to prevent them from fighting. A woman is also seen trying to stop one group.

HT could not independently verify the authenticity of the video clip.

Following the viral video, the Noida police on Sunday held a meeting with pub owners and asked them to alert police whenever such incidents take place. Notably, the mall security guards did not alert the police about the brawl on Friday. They also did not compile a list of people visiting the pub, investigators said.

With the help of CCTV cameras and the registration numbers of the cars, police tracked down the suspects on Monday and arrested them, said Praveen Singh, assistant commissioner of police, Noida, adding that the pub owners were directed to note down the details of people.

“Taking cognizance of the viral video, a case under sections 160 (punishment for committing affray) and 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) of the Indian Penal Code was registered at Sector 39 police station on Sunday,” said Singh.