Medal-winning shooter fires at man in road rage

NABBED Suspect Rahoul Rai nabbed by the crowd after the incident in Saket on Sunday night, the victim admitted to AIIMS trauma centre

NEWDELHI: A 38-year-old man was shot at, allegedly by a international-level skeet shooter, in south Delhi’s Saket in a case of road rage on Sunday evening.

The accused, identified as Rahoul Rai, 65, was nabbed by the public and handed over to the police. The revolver allegedly used by him in the crime has also been seized. “The suspect claimed to be a professional skeet shooter. We are verifying his background and have found no past criminal cases against him,” said Chinmoy Biswal, additional DCP (south).

The injured man, Amit Balyan, is a resident of Khanpur in south Delhi. He works with a forex company in the city. He and his friend, Jitender, were visiting the Khokha Market in Saket to have snacks around 5.30pm on Sunday when the incident took place.

Balyan told police that as he was about to drive away from the roadside eatery, when a car behind their vehicle started honking incessantly.

“We gave way to the car, but the person seated next to the driver pulled down his side of the window and began banging on our window and verbally abusing me,” alleged Balyan.

Before Balyan and his friend could react, Rai, seated on the front passenger’s seat, allegedly flashed a revolver and drove

away. It was then that Balyan decided to confront the accused and intercepted the car at a traffic signal some distance away.

As Balyan went to ‘talk’ to the people in the other car, Rai allegedly pulled out a revolver, pointed it to Balyan’s temple and threatened to shoot him. But Balyan grabbed the revolver’s barrel and tried to snatch it from Rai’s hand.

During the struggle, the revolver went off accidentally and the bullet hit Balyan’s left palm and made him unconscious. When he regained his senses sometime later, he found himself at a private hospital. He was later moved to AIIMS trauma centre where his condition is stable.

According to Biswal, Rai was returning home from Nainital in his car that was being driven by his driver Khusvinder Singh. When they were passing through Khokha Market in Saket, a

wrongly parked Swift car made Singh stop his vehicle.

Rai was produced before a city court that sent him to jail, police said.

NATIONAL SKEET SHOOTING CHAMPION

Rahoul Rai is a top skeet (shotgun) shooter who has won many national medals, including two National Championship titles, an individual silver and a team gold for Delhi at the 2001 National Games in Mohali.

For a long time between 2000 and 2005 was part of the national squad that competed in various international championships.

As per the International Shooting Sport Federation, he has also donned India colours in four World Cups – 1997 Delhi; 2002 Sydney; 1999 Lonato and 2000 Lonato. He also competed in the World Championships in Tampere in 1999.