Nearly two weeks after a 24-year-old Muslim man died following an alleged assault by a group of kanwariyas in Uttar Pradesh’s Hapur district, police have arrested five people in connection with the case and recovered the wooden stick allegedly used in the attack.

Azeem, a resident of Moradabad, succumbed to his injuries at a Delhi hospital on August 4, four days after he was allegedly beaten by a group of men following a road accident near the Brijghat Toll Plaza. He had remained unconscious throughout and never regained consciousness. Azeem is survived by his wife, an infant son and his ailing father, who has been bedridden for more than a year.

The five arrested accused have been identified as Manish Sisodiya, Shivam, Lokesh, Ankit and Daksh. According to Garhmukteshwar police station Station House Officer Devendra Singh, the first four were named in the First Information Report lodged by Azeem’s father, Intezar, while Daksh was identified during the course of the investigation, The Wire reported.

Police have also recovered a danda, allegedly used to assault Azeem, from Daksh. SHO Singh told the new website on August 15 that the weapon was recovered following Daksh’s disclosure.

The incident occurred in the early hours of July 31, when Azeem was driving a mini truck towards his workplace in the National Capital Region. Near Shiva Dhaba, ahead of the Brijghat Toll Plaza, his vehicle collided with a parked auto-rickshaw.

According to the Hapur police, the auto driver, 19-year-old Farman, sustained serious injuries after Azeem “negligently rammed” his ‘chhota hathi’ mini truck into the auto-rickshaw. Farman’s associates, who had hired the vehicle to travel to the Ganga at Brijghat to collect kanwad water, allegedly attacked Azeem after the collision, the news website reported.

Azeem was initially taken to a nursing home in Garhmukteshwar. His condition subsequently deteriorated and he was shifted to SS Hospital in Meerut in a comatose state before being transferred to a hospital in Delhi, where he died on August 4.

The police investigation has so far resulted in five arrests, while Farman remains under treatment for injuries sustained in the accident. He was also named as an accused in the FIR lodged by Azeem’s father. SHO Singh said there were no further arrests to be made in the case.

Two FIRs were registered following the incident. The first was lodged by Azeem’s father, Intezar, against Farman and the men allegedly involved in assaulting his son. The second was filed by Farman’s father, Imran, against Azeem.

The FIR against Azeem states that Farman had been hired by locals from his village on the night of July 30 to take them to Brijghat to collect water for kanwad. It also identifies the passengers travelling in the auto as kanwariyas from a village in Hapur.

An attempted murder case was registered against Azeem on August 3, shortly before his death. In his complaint, Imran alleged that Farman was standing beside the road around 3 am on July 31 when a speeding mini truck carrying Azeem and unidentified persons deliberately struck him.

Imran alleged in the FIR: “The driver deliberately ran the vehicle over my son a second time with the intention of killing him,”

The police case against Azeem thus emerged from the same road accident that preceded the fatal assault. While the circumstances surrounding the collision are being addressed through the two separate FIRs, the subsequent death of Azeem has led to the arrest of five men who police allege were involved in the assault.