Deccan Chronicle

Shot thrice as his lucky number is 3!

- DC CORRESPOND­ENT HYDERABAD, AUG. 2

Vikram Goud told the shooter Raees Khan to fire three times because three is his lucky number. The plan was to fire two bullets, one into Mr. Goud’s right shoulder and the other into his left shoulder, and the third bullet should brush past the right side of his stomach causing a minor injury.

But as both Mr Goud and the shooter panicked after two shots, the third bullet went into his stomach and was stuck in his spinal cord.

Mr Goud believed he might die. “He realised what a fool he was only after he sustained the injuries,” said a police officer investigat­ing the case of the shooting drama staged by Mr Goud himself.

According to the police, the shooter opened fire from an extremely close range so that he would get it right and not inflict a fatal wound. “Till the shooter fired the third shot, Mr Goud did not cry out at all. He waited for the third shot, and after it hit him, he asked Raees to run away. Mr Goud then shouted for help, which was heard by his wife,” said a police official.

Putting together the events prior to the shooting, an investigat­ing officer said, “On Friday at around 2.30 am, Mr Goud took the suspects, S. Nanda Kumar, Shaik Ahmed and Raees Khan to a place near his home in his own car. He told them to come to his house after 15 minutes and returned home. When they came in, he made them sit in the hall while he went upstairs and brought the firearm. He told Raees to fire three rounds since three was his lucky number.”

Shaik Ahmed was waiting outside with a bike on which Raees would escape. Nanda was asked to wait on the road with a four-wheeler in which he would also escape.

The two vehicles would be caught on CCTV cameras on the road, and the police would try and track them, thinking his rivals had attacked him.

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