Robbers exchange gunfire with police near Akshardham
NEW DELHI: A gang of suspected robbers and a police team were involved in a shootout outside the busy Akshardham metro station in east Delhi on Sunday morning, the fourth time this weekend when gunshots rang out in the streets of the national capital in what has turned into a worrying trend for law and order.
On Saturday, a woman was shot dead while she waited for her husband in her car in east Delhi’s Patparganj early in the morning, and police teams exchanged gunfire with suspected criminals in two other incidents. A day earlier, a couple suffered serious injuries after being chased by snatchers in Connaught Place.
The shootout outside the Akshardham station took place at 10.45am near the pedestrian bridge, according to Jasmeet Singh, deputy commissioner of police (east), who said that a police team had laid a trap for a gang known to offer rides to people and rob them of their belongings during the journey.
The police team came under fire after asking the suspects to stop, and they fired a bullet in response. While no one was hurt, the police team chased the suspects towards Gandhi Nagar before the car disappeared.
Snatchings, robberies, turf wars and hit jobs have led to multiple cases of shootings, some of them in the middle of busy streets in the national capital. An HT analysis showed at least 220 bullets were fired and 16 people died over a 30-day period this summer.
NEWDELHI: A shoot-out between a gang of suspected robbers and a police team took place outside the busy Akshardham Metro station in east Delhi at 10.45am on Sunday. This is the third shootout to take place in the national capital in the past two days.
The three shoot-outs also led to the arrests of four suspects and the recovery of three illegal guns and 24 bullets. The suspects in the Akshardham case, however, escaped.
In all, the three shoot-outs saw the exchange of 11 bullets that left one suspected criminal injured in his foot. In the exchange, two policemen also escaped being hit, all thanks to their bulletproof vests.
The shoot-out outside the Akshardham Metro station took place near a foot overbridge, about 100m from the Akshardham temple. Jasmeet Singh, deputy commissioner of police (east), said a team from Mandawali police station had laid a trap to nab a gang of criminals.
The police said this particular gang would offer rides to people from the Akshardham metro station and temple and dupe them of their belongings during the journey.
“We noticed a white car with the suspected criminals inside it and we signalled them to stop. But instead of coming out of the car, the suspects fired a bullet at the police team and sped towards the Geeta Colony Flyover,” the DCP said.
The police said that the team also fired one round in response. While no one was hurt in the exchange of fire, the police team chased the suspects towards Gandhi Nagar before they managed to go out of sight, the officer said.
The police suspect there were four men in the car, but no arrests were made until late Sunday.s
On Saturday around 7.40pm, a police team exchanged fire with three motorcycle-borne men on the Kair-mitraon Road in outer Delhi’s Najafgarh. The three men are suspected of making extortion calls to local traders.
“The gang— that operates on the behalf of jailed criminal Deepak Dhankhar—had on two occasions in the recent past had fired inside a departmental store in Najafgarh after their extortion demands were not met. On Saturday evening, they were on their way to assault another trader for not giving in to their demands,” Anto Alphonse, deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka), said.
A police team intercepted three suspects riding on a motorcycle on Saturday.
“They tried to escape but fell due to a collision between their motorcycle and our vehicle. The criminals fired at us and we fired back. One suspect, Vicky, was hit in his foot while one of our constables escaped unhurt because of his bulletproof vest,” DCP Alphonse said.
The shoot-out ended with the arrest of the three suspects and the recovery of two guns and two bullets.
The third shoot-out took place in east Delhi’s Seemapuri around 2am on Saturday after the police received a tip about an alleged criminal.
“The suspect, Aarif has been involved in over 40 criminal cases, ranging from snatching to murder. His last known involvement was in Ghaziabad when he gunned down his wife in February. He was planning to kill his mother-in-law and sister-in-law next,” Amit Sharma, deputy commissioner of police (Shahdara), said.
DCP Sharma said that when Aarif was cornered by a police team, he fired three rounds, one of which hit a policeman’s bulletproof jacket.
“The policemen fired two rounds in self-defence before nabbing him and recovering a gun and 22 bullets from him,” DCP Sharma added.