Drunk goons on shooting spree

October 07, 2015 12:00 am | Updated 07:27 am IST

Illustration: Santan

Illustration: Santan

A 12-year-old girl was among four persons injured after some drunken men fired indiscriminately at a crowd in east Delhi’s Krishna Nagar late on Monday night.

Eyewitnesses said a quarrel between a restaurant staff and the inebriated men over the payment of food bill led to the firing incident.

Police have identified seven persons in this connection and efforts are on to identify them, said BS Gurjar, DCP (East). The suspects were drinking at the time of the incident, he said.

Much of this action took place around 11.30 p.m. on a road passing through a market in Krishna Nagar’s Jheel Khuranja area. Locals said around a dozen men had gathered at the office-cum-home of one Sonu Dua, a local property dealer.

Bhanu, an eyewitness, said the men were drinking and gambling at Dua’s office when three-four of them walked over to a restaurant by the name ‘Royal India Restaurant’ located across Dua’s office and demanded rotis. Sunil, a staff at the restaurant, told them to clear the bill for the food they had already consumed.

“That infuriated these men and they began manhandling Sunil. When his colleagues intervened, one of them pulled out a pistol and fired a few shots in the air. That drew the local residents out of their homes,” said Bhanu.

The locals, swelling in number, began gathering around the shooters in a bid to nab them.

The shooters were also joined in by their other associates who had heard the sound of gunshots.

“Finding themselves surrounded, one of them shot at Sunil to scare away the crowd. Sunil was hit in his hand, but the firing only infuriated the public further,” said another eyewitness Balraj. According to locals, at least half-a-dozen of the suspects were armed with pistols. The rest allegedly pulled out baseball bats and rods from their cars parked nearby.

Many in the 200-odd crowd came armed with sticks and stones as they decided to take on the shooters. Finding no escape route, the culprits allegedly began firing indiscriminately at the crowd. One bullet hit a 12-year-old girl Suman in her abdomen. “My daughter had heard the sound of gunshots and rushed out onto the road out of curiosity,” said Suman’s mother Sangeeta. Suman has lost her kidney and is battling for life at hospital.

“An elderly man, Ratan Singh, tried to reason with the assailants, but they shot him thinking he was getting close to them in order to overpower them,” said Devendra, a local. Ratan, 65, was hit in his head and is said to be in a serious condition.

The fourth to have been hit was Gopal Singh, 55. He has been hit in his abdomen, but is out of danger. Apart from these, a 17-year-old youth sustained a fracture to his hand after being thrashed with hockey sticks by the fleeing men.

The assailants kept the chasing crowd at a distance for almost half-a-kilometre till they reached near Geeta Colony police station.

“While escaping, they had phoned their friends for help. They arrived in some cars to whisk them away before we could get to them,” said Bhanu.

With the suspects having escaped, the crowd vented their anger at Dua’s office and two cars, a Toyota Fortuner and a Swift Dzire bearing a police sticker, belonging to the assailants.

The vehicles have been seized and police have registered a case of attempt to murder against the assailants at Krishna Nagar police station.

An elderly man, Ratan Singh, tried to reason with the assailants, but they shot him thinking he was getting close to them in order to overpower them

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