Vengeful duo go on shooting spree, kill 4

After carnage, both shoot selves, 1 dead

In a shooting spree carried out by two men, four people, including a child, were killed and four were injured in Swaroop Nagar village in north-west Delhi on Friday.

The assailants then shot themselves, resulting in the death of one of them. The other is battling for life.

The gunmen have been identified as Rajbir Sharma, 30, father of two, who runs a small transport business, and his friend Manish Sharma, 23, both residents of the village. The shooting spree that killed four people lasted half an hour.

At 4 pm, Rajbir and Manish, riding on a motorcycle, first went to Kishan Sharma’s house and shot him. Kishan Sharma, 38, is Rajbir’s elder brother.

Rajbir had planned to kill Kishan over an ongoing ancestral property dispute. Rajbir’s father had been living with Kishan ever since the dispute started. Rajbir and Manish then fled from Kishan’s house on a motorcycle. They straight away went to 23-year-old Jyoti Yadav’s house, which was 200 metres from Kishan’s house. They knocked her door and asked members of her family to call her. Later, then Manish shot her. Jyoti’s fault was that Manish wanted to marry her, but her parents had fixed her marriage with another man.

The girl got engaged last month, and was scheduled to get married on November 19. After her marriage was fixed, Manish had gone to her house and warned everyone of dire consequences.

The two killers then rode towards the highway, when they came across Usha Yadav, 25, a teacher with a private school in Model Town, and also a resident of Swaroop Nagar.

They stopped their bike and shot her. Apparently, Rajbir was infatuated with her. The two men then returned to Rajbir’s house. Rajbir entered the house and shot his three-year-old daughter Rashi, eight-year-old daughter Khushi and 25-year-old wife Pooja.

Then Manish and Rajbir decided to shoot themselves. “Khushi, Jyoti, Usha and Rajbir were killed in the incident, while Pooja, Rashi, Kishan and Manish are undergoing treatment for critical injuries,” said a senior police official.

All the victims were initially taken to Babu Jagjivan Ram Memorial Hospital, and the critically injured were later shifted to Lok Nayak Hospital.

Police are probing the matter and trying to ascertain the exact sequence of events. A crime branch team of Delhi Police also reached the spot for investigation. Police have also called in the forensic team.

The provocation for the shooting spree appears to be Manish’s obsession for Jyoti and while Rajbir’s property dispute with his brother Krishna. “We are trying to link the sequence of the incident and trying to find the reason behind the bloodshed,” said P Karunakaran, deputy commissioner of police (north-west).

Police have recovered three country-made pistols from Rajbir’s house, which police believe were used in the crime.