A tale of two dogs, five criminals and a shooting gone wrong in Delhi

Two criminals were allegedly slapped by a jailer. They planned to threaten him, and asked an associate to fire near his house. However, the ‘revenge’ went awry

A miscalculated reconnaissance and a case of mistaken identity put paid to a city gang’s “revenge” plan in north-east Delhi’s Kabir Nagar on Saturday, leading to the arrest of five of its members the same day, police said.

Yasin, a member of Chhenu gang, allegedly gathered four of his gang members and decided to fire at jailer Swaraj Singh’s home in north-east Delhi’s Kabir Nagar to scare him. He allegedly gave a couple of dogs as 'landmarks' to pinpoint Singh’s house to three members of his gang. (HT photo)

According to police, members of the gang, in order to pinpoint the house of their “target”, depended on a pair of community dogs that were resting in front of the house. The “landmarks” however changed their positions and lay down to rest in front of a different house by the time the remaining gang reached the spot, which led to the members shooting at a completely uninvolved person’s house, much to his alarm.

According to police, the issue began on April 3, when Arbaz, a member of the Chhenu gang, and his friend Akib were allegedly slapped by the head warden of Mandoli Jail for “indiscipline on the prison premises”.

On Friday, another alleged member of the Chhenu gang, Yasin, who was lodged in the same jail, was released on bail. “Before Yasin left, Arbaz and Akib told him to seek revenge against the jailer on their behalf,” the officer said.

Upon release, Yasin allegedly gathered four of his gang members and decided to fire at Singh’s home in Kabir Nagar to scare him. They allegedly arranged four guns and two motorcycles and decided to carry out their plan a little after midnight on Saturday, police said.

Around 1am, the five hopped on to a Bajaj Pulsar and a KTM Duke and rode to Singh’s neighbourhood. “Two members of the gang entered Singh’s street first for a recce. They identified his house based on the address they had and found two community dogs sitting outside the building. They returned to the others and told them to shoot at the house where the dogs sat,” the DCP added.

In the meantime, the dogs decided to meander away and sit in front of another house--owned by Asif, who sells jeans for a living.

“The assailants shot 10 rounds in the air in front of Asif’s house under the misapprehension that it belonged to Singh. Their aim was to frighten rather than hurt, and hence no one was injured,” the officer said.

A shaken Asif, at his wits’ end about the perpetrators or their motive, complained to the police.

Police registered a case under the Arms Act at Welcome police station and investigators found CCTV footage of the men on the two motorcycles, both of which were missing their registration number plates.

Police, while making enquiries at the local level, found a shopkeeper who knew one of the suspects. That led to the arrest of all the five --- Yasin, Abdullah, Juber Alam, Zamir and Zoaib – all aged between 19 and 22. They were subsequently arrested and the guns allegedly used in the crime recovered.

Police are in the process of informing the jail authorities to act against the inmates on whose alleged instructions the attack was carried out.