Jeweller slain on road, entire Ghaziabad colony chases down killers

GHAZIABAD: A jewellery shop owner was murdered in the middle of a road on Monday evening, but the brazen killing by two men, who also fired in the air to intimidate, didn’t scare others into silence. Instead, virtually the entire colony around the crime spot got involved in chasing down the duo – some aiming stones at them from rooftops, others setting off in hot pursuit. One was captured immediately, the other on Tuesday morning. Both were charged under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC.
Sakinder Yadav (35) was tracked by his assailants as he closed his shop in the DLF area of Loni, got on his bike and started for home in Delhi’s Karawal Nagar, a short distance from there on the other side of the border. The spot where they attacked him is around 800 metres from his shop.
SP rural Iraj Raja told TOI the accused had been following Yadav for three months to become acquainted with his routines. On Monday, they spotted Yadav carrying a bag, which had gold and silver jewellery, which they wanted to steal.
The duo stationed their bike near Yadav’s shop around 7pm and waited. “When the victim closed the shutter of his shop around 8.30pm, and the two men started following him. Yadav was near Hyatt Enclave in Shankar Vihar colony when they intercepted him and tried to snatch his bag. As Yadav resisted, they shot him twice and stabbed him three times in the abdomen with a knife,” Raja said.
The gunshots startled the colony, bringing scores of residents out on the street or on terraces. When they saw a man had been shot and the two assailants were trying to snatch the bag from him, people in the area rained stones on the duo from rooftops and the street. “In panic, the two shooters fired four rounds in the air to scare them off but couldn’t shake off those in hot pursuit,” Raja said.
Mohmad Zakir, a resident, said that they were watching TV in their house, waiting for dinner when the family heard two gunshots and rushed out. “When he went to the balcony, we found one man holding a gun and another a knife while a man lay on the road in a pool of blood,” he said.
One of the first to react was Peeyush Kumar, a 29-year-old who lives nearby. “Peeyush grabbed a stick and rushed towards the armed men to save the victim. But the accused fired in the air and asked him to step back. But that didn’t deter Peeyush. He attacked them with the stick but they slashed at him with the knife. He received multiple injuries on his hands,” said Zakir.
The two assailants tried to flee in their bike but were impeded by projectiles that flew in. “I threw utensils from the balcony to stop them,” Zakir said. Eventually, a group of locals chasing the two managed to nab one of them, Ajay Kumar (31).
A police team led by the SSP that reached the spot took custody of Ajay. Locals took Yadav and Peeyush to a nearby hospital. Yadav had passed away by then. Peeyush received eight stitches on both his hands.
The other assailant, identified as Bunty, was nabbed by the police after an “encounter” that left him with bullet injuries on both his legs just 500 metres before the state border on Tuesday morning. “The criminal caught by residents lives in Karawal Nagar, Delhi. We interrogated him and he revealed the details of another Bunty alias Rupesh. He is from Baghpat and was living in Karawal Nagar on rent,” Raja said.
“On Tuesday morning, a police team went to Bunty’s house in Delhi but he wasn’t there. Then we received information from a source that Bunty was hiding in Loni. Around 12.30pm, he was seen going towards Ankur Vihar (on a bike). When cops asked him to stop, he tried to flee. Two police teams chased him, but he fired at the cops,” the SP rural said.
The police teams fired back, leaving him with gunshot injuries. “More teams were called to nab him. We surrounded him and caught him after 15 minutes of chasing,” Raja said. Both are known to police. Five cases of snatching and robbery are filed against them in Ghaziabad and Delhi.