Gurgaon: The three men arrested for the murder of software engineer Pooja Sharma were actually petty criminals nursing ambitions of cutting it as hardcore criminals in Gurgaon. And the trio had opened fire in confusion when Pooja tried to speed away in order to avert the theft of her SUV, TOI has learnt.
Out on a drive with her boyfriend in his Creta, Pooja (26) was shot in the head on November 3 by the trio — Hariom, Irshad and Jitender — who ambushed the couple’s SUV on a dimly lit road leading towards DPS International School in Sector 65. She succumbed to a critical brain injury on November 5.
Over a period of six months till October, Hariom, Irshad and Jitender, police sources said, were busy snatching mobile phones, gold chains and bags from people on desolate stretches of Golf Course Road (Extension) and Sohna road. They were wanted in some 100 cases of snatching and robbery between them.
But tired of committing petty road crimes, the trio acquired two country-made pistols from Madhya Pradesh last month in order to rob people of their cars at gunpoint. But the lack of experience in car snatching led to Pooja’s murder. They allegedly committed one more murder in the city after that, on November 14.
During interrogation, the trio told cops that they opened fire as Pooja who was driving the SUV had refused to roll down the window and tried to speed away. In fact, they had fired a shot through the windscreen that missed Pooja’s to-be-husband Sagar Manchanda and hit her head.
Pooja, an employee of a leading multinational IT company, had returned to her hometown, Chhattisgarh’s Dhamtari, earlier this year to work from home. She was based out of the IT major’s Gurgaon office. She had come to Delhi-NCR on October 25 to plan her wedding and get her official laptop changed.
ACP (crime) Preet Pal Sangwan said, “On an average, the accused used to commit five to 10 petty road crimes daily. And the gang would make Rs 60,000 to Rs 80,000 a month by selling the snatched mobile phones to a shop in Mewat and jewelleries to a shop in Palwal. We are trying to track the two shop owners down.”
“On the night of November 3, the trio armed with the two pistols were roaming around Golf Course Road (Extension) looking for potential targets. They intercepted the SUV in Sector 65 but opened fire in confusion when Pooja tried to speed away. Their motive was to only threaten the couple,” Sangwan added.
Jitender, who was the kingpin of the gang, used to work as a mechanic at a two-wheeler repair shop, where he met Hariom, who used to do odd jobs. Together, they started snatching mobile phones to make quick money. The duo got in touch with Irshad in Bhondsi jail after being caught in a case of snatching.
“Irshad was lodged in the jail in connection with a bike theft. After coming out of the jail, the trio formed the gang some seven months back,” another police official said.