Day after, cops start looking for ‘stalker’

18-YEAR-OLD SHOT AT PATANJALI STORE

TWELVE HOURS after 18-yearold Gunjan Dutt was shot dead in Gurgaon’s Sector 21 Monday night, Gurgaon Police started conducting raids at “various locations” on Tuesday to nab the suspect behind the murder.

According to police, in the case registered at the Palam Vihar police station under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and relevant sections of the Arms Act, the victim’s father, Chander Dutt, has alleged that the youth, who hails from Jhajjar and is in his late twenties, had been stalking his daughter for the last few months.

“The victim had a gunshot wound on the left side of her chest, which appears to have made a clean exit through her back. The shot seems to have been fired at a close range, about two or three feet,” said Dr Deepak Mathur, who conducted the autopsy.

Police said that Dutt, in the FIR, has claimed that they first heard of the suspect when Gunjan told them he was harassing her, and her claims were confirmed when he began turning up at the their home in Palam Vihar, asking the parents to give him her hand in marriage. The family has also claimed that they had registered a case against him at the Bajghera police post “two or three months ago”.

“The family has named a person as the accused in the case, and we are conducting raids at various locations to nab him. Further details can be shared only after he has been caught and interrogated,” said Manish Sehgal, the public relations officer (PRO) of Gurugram Police.

Gunjan was shot while she was leaving the Patanjali store in Gurgaon’s Sector 21, where she had been working for the last six months, at 9.30 pm Monday. The assailant allegedly came on foot and shot her before fleeing the scene.

She was rushed to Columbia Asia hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries, said police, adding that the postmortem has been conducted and the body handed over to her family, which hails from Uttar Pradesh.

The victim’s father, Chander Dutt, has alleged the suspect, who hails from Jhajjar and is in his late twenties, had been stalking his daughter for the last several months