His crime? Daring to stop and prosecute a speeding delivery van, driven by one Sanjay who did not possess a licence.

Worse, Traffic Constable Kumar could not undergo treatment at a private hospital in Saket for his head injuries after the hospital sought Rs 25,000. An amount too much for him to cough up.

DCP (Traffic-South) Rupinder Kumar said the incident occurred at 8.45 pm, when three traffic officers — zonal officer ASI Wazir Singh, and Constables Naveen and Rajesh Kumar — were manning a picket near Sheikh Sarai intersection. “It was part of a routine checking,” DCP Kumar said.

According to traffic police, the delivery van, speeding in from Sainik Farm side and headed towards the Old Delhi railway station, jumped the red light. The three officers immediately stopped the van and asked for the driver’s licence. “The driver, Sanjay, a resident of Dakshinpuri, did not have a licence,” a traffic police officer said, “so the officers asked him to leave the van at the traffic office.”

But instead of heading to the traffic office at Sadiq Nagar, Sanjay rang up his employer, Uma Shankar Kanojia. Within minutes, the traffic officer said, four men approached in a Honda City. His two colleagues on the other side of the road by then, Constable Rajesh Kumar was manning the picket alone.

The assailants wasted little time and “began raining blows on Kumar’s face”, the traffic officer said. One of the four then took a brick and smashed it on the constable’s face, and they all fled as the other officials ran in.

ASI Wazir Singh and Constable Naveen Kumar, with help of passersby, caught the Honda City driver, identified as Sonu Gupta. But the other three fled, the police said.

Two of them — Mukesh and Sunil — were arrested on Friday afternoon. Uma Shankar Kanojia, who owns both the delivery van and the car in which the foursome came, is still absconding. Ambedkar Nagar police have registered an FIR against the four under IPC Sections 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of duty), 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), and 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to public servant).