Man wanted for Dwarka Mod shoot-out arrested

A policeman and a man suspected to be gangster suffered bullet injuries to their legs during an encounter in outer Delhi’s Kanjhawala on Friday evening, police said.

Police said the suspected gangster was also involved in a shoot-out in Dwarka Mod last Sunday, which two other alleged gangsters were shot dead.

The injured policeman, sub-inspector Krishan, and the alleged gangster, Ankit Dabas, have been moved to Valmiki Maharshi Hospital where both are expected to survive, Sanjeev Yadav, deputy commissioner of police (special cell), said.

Yadav said Dabas, 20, was one of the three men who had arrived by a black Swift car and a motorcycle to allegedly eliminate their rival Praveen Gehlot, on Sunday afternoon.

Accompanied by his associates— Vikas Dalal and a man who goes by his nickname, Cheetah— Dabas had blocked traffic under the Metro station as they fired nearly two dozen bullets on Gehlot, who was driving a Maruti Ritz.

Gehlot was shot 10 times and died on the spot, but the assailants were taken in by surprise by a policeman who arrived there and took on the killers.

The policeman fired three rounds from his gun, killing Dalal on the spot. The other two assailants, meanwhile, had managed to flee the spot.

In the days that followed, the local police were joined by a special cell team to nab Dabas and Cheetah. The DCP said the breakthrough came Friday evening when his team received a tip-off that Dabas would be arriving on the Kanjhawala-Bawana Road in Kanjhawala around 7.45pm.

“We laid a trap and found Dabas riding a motorcycle towards Bawana. When we signalled him to stop, he opened fire at us. One of our sub-inspectors was hit in his left leg. We returned the fire and hit him in the thigh,” the DCP said.

The police seized his motorcycle and allegedly found him in possession of a pistol and live cartridges.

The officer said while it was certain that Dabas was one of the three killers in the Dwarka Mod shoot-out, his other criminal involvement is being ascertained.

The local police had earlier said the Dwarka shoot-out was a gang war led by rivals Manjeet Mahal and Kapil Sangwan alias Nandu.

The encounter comes just a day after a 22-year-old man with 20 criminal cases against him was shot in the arm in an encounter with the special cell near Raj Ghat in the early hours of Thursday.

First Published: May 25, 2019 02:23 IST