A 34-year-old woman was shot dead by two unidentified assailants in the early hours of Wednesday near Rohini prisons complex. The police have registered a murder case and have begun probe. The motive behind the murder appears to be a debt-related matter, the police said.
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The victim, Priya Mehra, is a resident of Rohini Sector 15. At around 4 a.m. on Wednesday, she was in a car with her husband Pankaj Mehra and two-year-old son when two men intercepted the vehicle and attacked them.
Dinner at Jama Masjid
Recalling the incident, Mr. Mehra said they had decided to go to Bangla Sahib Gurdwara on Tuesday night with their son Naish and then to Jama Masjid for dinner. The incident took place while they were returning home.
“I took a u-turn from the Rohini prison complex and a car cornered us. I thought they were drunk and didn’t want to get into any brawl. But one of them came out of the car, pulled out a pistol and slammed it on the window, shattering it,” he said.
Mr. Mehra claimed that the man then hit him above his eyebrow before firing a shot from the pistol.
“When he shot the first round, the window of the passenger seat broke. I thought it had missed Priya but it hit her in the eye and also made an exit wound,” he said, breaking down. When Mr. Mehra resisted, the assailant fired another shot which hit Priya in the neck.
The man allegedly tried to shoot a third time but his pistol jammed and he shouted to his partner to hand him another weapon. In the meantime, Mr. Mehra managed to manoeuvre his car around and flee.
“I immediately called the police and told them my wife had been shot. I asked them to come to Saroj Hospital because I was going to take Priya there,” he said.
‘Treatment delayed’
By 4:30 a.m., they reached the hospital and Priya was taken to the emergency section. Mr. Mehra and other family members alleged that no one at the hospital touched her till the police came 15 minutes later.
‘We had talked about leaving the city‘
“She could have been saved had she been given first aid or treatment the minute she entered the hospital. She was breathing for nearly 20-25 minutes after being shot,” said Deepanshu Budhiraja, Mr. Mehra’s nephew who was at the hospital at the time.
However, the police said she was declared brought dead on arrival. On the possible reason for the attack, Mr. Mehra said that he owed a few lakhs to a Sonipat-based money lender who had been threatening him over repayment of the money.
“I have known him since 2013 and and we have had financial dealings since then. However, for the last few months, I haven’t been able to pay him interest and he has been threatening me,” he said.
Cafe shut down
Mr. Mehra used to run a small clothing business in Chandni Chowk till a year ago. Last year, he opened Blue Bull Café, a restaurant in north Delhi’s Hudson Lane, which he decided to shut in the last week of September because of losses and threats, he said.
The police have registered a case at Shalimar Bagh police station and are investigating from all angles.
“Mr Mehra has shared the details with us. According to him, unreasonable interest rates were imposed on an initial loan of ₹4-5 lakh and now ₹40 lakh is owed to the moneylender. He is also being questioned. Investigation will reveal further details,” he said.