Woman shot dead in front of husband, son in Delhi

new delhi — A 34-year-old woman travelling in a car with her two-year-old son and husband was shot dead by a gangster who apparently wanted to kill the man for not returning a loan he had taken but ended up murdering his wife after a scuffle.

Priya Mehra was shot twice from close range, one bullet piercing her cheek and another her neck, at around 4.15am at Shalimar Bagh in west Delhi, Deputy Commissioner of Police Milind Mahadeo Dumbere said.

The Mehras were returning to their home in Rohini from Bangla Sahib Gurudwara in the heart of the capital when the killers in another car overtook their car and blocked its way.

One of them broke the window glass of the driver’s seat with a revolver and ordered Pankaj Mehra to step out, family members said. Instead of getting out, Pankaj Mehra gripped the weapon.

The gangster then opened fire but the bullet missed Pankaj Mehra and instead hit his wife. The killer fired once more and again hit her. Pankaj Mehra managed to start the car and escape from the area. A profusely bleeding Priya Mehra was reportedly alive when she reached the hospital. “She was blinking her eyes,” Pankaj Mehra’s sister Sabeena said, adding that the doctors did not provide her even first aid.

The young woman died half hour later.

Dumbere quoted Pankaj Mehra as saying that a man from whom he had borrowed money but was unable to pay back was behind the murder. There were four men in the car which blocked their vehicle. —