Man held for opening fire in Shahdara

One of the motorcycle-borne assailants who opened indiscriminate firing when a woman opposed the chain-snatching bid in Shahdara was arrested late on Wednesday evening from Tahirpur, police said.

According to V V Choudhary, additional commissioner of police (north-east), Abdul Rashid along with accomplice Dipu had targeted Mamta Rani and her daughter-in-law Preeti when they were on their way to nearby market on a rickshaw around 1.30 pm on Wednesday.

“They had indiscriminately fired several rounds to intimidate the crowd after they fell down from the motorcycle in an ensuing scuffle with Mamta and while trying to escape,” Choudhary added.

On hearing the noise, Dinanath, a security guard deployed at a nearby Muthoot Finance gold financing company, had fired four rounds from his double-barrel 12 bore gun to stop the robbers.

In this incident, three passersby had sustained bullet injuries and were taken to Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital in Dilshad Garden.

A special drive was then carried out to nab the assailants through regular checking of vehicles at check posts.

“We received a tip-off that a robber named Abdul would be coming to Tahirpur via Seemapuri on a motorcycle with illicit arms and ammunition,” he added.

Cops immediately swung into action and laid a trap at Tahirpur. Around 9 pm, a motorcycle was signalled to stop, but the rider tried to escape.

He was apprehended by placing further barricades and was identified as Abdul. A loaded automatic country-made pistol and two live cartridges were recovered from him.

Abdul initially declined his involvement in any criminal case, but later confessed he was part of the Shahdara incident along with associate Dipu.

“He further disclosed that Dipu had kept the snatched gold chain,” he said.

It has also come to light that Abdul was earlier arrested in a house robbery case.