Four persons have been arrested in connection with Wednesday night’s shootout at Connaught Place, the police said, adding that efforts are on to nab two more accused who are still at large.
The incident happened when the six accused, including Aman Bhatia (25), Punit Bhatia (25), Sahil Verma (25), and Kamal alias Sonu (23), who were allegedly drunk, started quarrelling with street vendors around 11 p.m. near Shivaji Stadium Bus Terminal.
Presence of mind
“One of them started relieving himself right in front of my food stall. I told him to go elsewhere but he refused to budge,” said 60-year-old Than Singh.
According to him, that man and another friend then went to a cigarette kiosk and asked the owner for cigarettes. “The cigarette kiosk owner had shut shop for the day and refused to oblige them. They started abusing him and forcing him to open his kiosk. When he refused, they put a gun to his temple,” Mr. Singh said.
Also present at the spot was 22-year-old Sanjit Kumar, the son of a tea stall owner. The tea stall is located just behind the cigarette kiosk. Mr. Kumar slipped away and went to a police picket a few metres away to inform them about the incident.
“I sensed something was wrong so I went to the police picket. There were about seven to eight officers there and they came to the spot immediately,” he said.
The accused tried to flee on seeing the police officers, said eyewitnesses.
“When the police tried to stop them, they fired at them and tried to flee on foot. However, two of them were caught by the street vendors and two others by the police,” said Mr. Singh.
The police said Aman has a criminal record and was released from jail recently. “Probe revealed that this gang of criminals is wanted in another case of shootout at Connaught Place about a month back,” said DCP (New Delhi) B.K. Singh.
The police have registered a case under Section 186 (Obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 307 (attempt to murder), 353 (Assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 34 (common intention) of the IPC.