New Delhi: Two weeks after a 24-year-old Muslim man was brutally thrashed, allegedly by a group of kanwariyas, following a road accident in Uttar Pradesh’s Hapur, police have arrested five persons. The victim succumbed to his injuries on August 4.The police have also recovered the murder weapon – a danda or wooden stick – from one of the arrested accused, a police officer told The Wire. The stick was recovered based on the disclosure of accused person Daksh.Azeem, who was originally a resident of Moradabad, died at a Delhi hospital, four days after he was beaten, allegedly by a group of men who were kanwariyas, in Hapur. He leaves behind a wife, an infant son, and an ailing father who has been bedridden for over a year.Azeem was driving a mini truck to his workplace in the National Capital Region when in the early hours of July 31, the vehicle collided with a parked auto-rickshaw near the Shiva Dhaba, ahead of the Brijghat Toll Plaza in Hapur district.Hapur police in a statement said that the driver of the auto, Farman, was seriously injured after Azeem “negligently rammed” his ‘chhota hathi’ mini truck into the auto-rickshaw. Following this, Farman’s associates, who had booked the auto to travel to the Ganga river to fetch kanwad water, brutally assaulted Azeem. Seriously injured, he was rushed to a local nursing home in Garhmukteshwar, shifted to SS Hospital in Meerut in a comatose state, and later transferred to Delhi, where he ultimately succumbed to his injuries in August 4 without ever regaining consciousness.‘Manish Sisodiya, Shivam, Lokesh, Ankit and Daksh’Station House Officer of Garhmukteshwar police station Devendra Singh told The Wire on August 15 that they had arrested five persons for Azeem’s murder. Those arrested were identified as Manish Sisodiya, Shivam, Lokesh, Ankit and Daksh. The first four were named in the First Information Report filed in the matter by Azeem’s father Intezar. Daksh was identified during investigation, said police.It was SHO Singh who said that the danda used in assaulting Azeem was recovered from Daksh.The SHO said that there were no more arrests to be made in the case. Along with the alleged kanwariyas, the driver of the auto Farman (aged 19) was also named in the FIR. He is still receiving treatment after having been injured in the accident.There were two FIRs lodged in the matter. The first one was by Azeem’s father Intezar against the auto driver and the kanwariyas for assaulting his son. The second FIR was lodged against Azeem on the complaint of Farman’s father Imran.The FIR lodged against Azeem also confirms that the passengers in Farman’s auto were kanwariyas belonging to a village in Hapur. An FIR invoking charges of attempted murder was lodged against Azeem on August 3.According to Imran, on the night of July 30, some locals in his village had hired Farman’s auto-rickshaw to travel to Brijghat on the Ganga river to fetch kanwad water.Around 3 am on July 31, Farman was standing on the side of the road when a speeding mini truck carrying Azeem and unidentified persons deliberately rammed hard into his son causing him to fall onto the road, said Imran. “The driver deliberately ran the vehicle over my son a second time with the intention of killing him,” alleged Imran in the FIR.‘Case closed’Since Azeem, the sole known accused in the second FIR is dead, the police will file a closure report in the matter before a magistrate. “Case khatam ho jayega (the case will be closed),” said SHO Singh.The officer confirmed that Farman, who was seriously injured, was alive.Farman’s father Imran had alleged that Azeem ran the wheels of the vehicle over his son’s abdomen and chest, before speeding away from the scene.Farman received serious injuries to his head, abdomen and spine.Locals found him in an unconscious state and took him to Saraswati Hospital in nearby town Pilkhuwa. Farman was shifted to a trauma centre in AIIMS Delhi due to his serious condition.Imran said that Farman’s spleen and intestines ruptured when the vehicle’s wheel allegedly ran over his abdomen. Farman was in a coma, when his father submitted his police complaint.