Brawl at Delhi 5-star hotel: How meal with a friend turned into a nightmare

NEW DELHI: “I don’t even know him. He came at me with the pistol, shouting that he would shoot me. I asked him why, but he only kept on abusing me,” recollected Gaurav Singh, the man who was threatened by another armed man with a gun + at Hyatt Regency hotel in south Delhi.

Singh was so shaken by the incident that he returned home without lodging a police complaint. “I have always preferred a low profile, so I did not want to make a noise about this fiasco,” he claimed.


Singh said that he had gone to the luxury hotel accompanied by a friend for a meal. “She complained of not feeling well and was nauseous, so I took her to the washroom and waited outside,” recalled Singh. “This is when Ashish Pandey and his female friends reached the place. He was intoxicated and was cursing at everyone. I immediately called the hotel staff. Before they could come, the girls went into the washroom and started bullying my friend, because of which she started screaming.”






With Singh’s friend reduced to tears, the two decided to immediately leave the hotel. But by then, Pandey was already waiting in the porch with a gun in his hand.

Singh’s father, Kunwar Karan Singh, a former MLA, said the family was shocked to learn about what had happened. “We have given our statement to the cops and have full faith in them as well as the judiciary that they will take appropriate action. What happened to my son should not happen to us too,” the former MLA said.







While Singh and his father felt that Pandey’s act constituted an attack, the latter’s family were not so sure. Family members admitted that Pandey was carrying and brandishing his pistol, but insisted it was only because it was a licensed pistol that he could not leave behind in the car in case it was stolen.



Pandey’s uncle, Pawan, told reporters that the youth was currently in Lucknow to attend a funeral in the family. “I spoke to him after watching the TV reports, and he told me he had not threatened anyone and that police could check the CCTV footage. He did not even point the pistol at anyone,” said Pawan.

Denying that Pandey was planning to flee the country, Pawan added, “We have businesses with a turnover of over Rs 800 crore. Why would we run away? If he has done anything wrong, of course, he should be punished.”

Meanwhile, Sudhindra Bhadodia, spokesperson for the Bahujan Samaj Party, refuted allegations that the gun wielder was a member of that party. “BSP has nothing to do with this. And as far as the issue is concerned, the party believes that the official machinery should act against whoever takes law and order into their own hands,” Bhadodia said.