Evicted by the police from the house where he was staying, Manoj sits on a cot outside the Kailash Gupta dhaba, where he once worked. His belongings lie nearby a sack full of utensils and a stove, a mattress and a jug. Now that's his home, day and night.

The past three months were a nightmare for Malik: ``First, I wake up inside a hospital to realise that a car has run over me. Then, they insert two rods in my legs. All this while, I was registered as an unidentified patient. My relatives arrive later. Meanwhile, the police are nice to me and give me a place to live. After a month, they change their mind and throw me out of the house.''

DCP (South) P.K. Srivastav says: ``We had gone out of our way to be nice to Malik. But he started taking advantage of it. He began briefing the Press regularly. How long could this go on?''

Malik says he may go back to his home state, Orissa, next week. ``I am meeting my doctor at AIIMS tomorrow. I have begun to walk this week. If the doctor allows me to leave, I will go back,'' he says while his friends from the dhaba days look on.

His friends are looking for a room for Malik and his brother in the area. Before the accident, Malik stayed in a room near the dhaba. ``I cannot go back there,'' he says. ``Someone else is staying there now and the owner has increased the rent as well. But, then, I may not need a house at all if I go back to my village.''

Malik had expressed his eagerness to reach a settlement with the Nandas, but there has reportedly been no response from their side.