35-year-old man shot in front of minor daughters in Ghaziabad

The shooting was also captured on a nearby CCTV camera, in which one of the two girls was seen shouting for help as the assailants fled the spot soon after.

A 35-year-old man was shot and critically injured in front of his two minor daughters by a group of men late Monday night at Vijay Nagar in Ghaziabad. The man sustained a gunshot injury in the head. The police arrested nine suspects in connection with the incident on Tuesday.

The police identified the victim as Vikram Joshi, a journalist who works at a local Hindi newspaper.

The police identified the victim as Vikram Joshi, a journalist who works at a local Hindi newspaper. Joshi was riding his motorcycle with his two daughters, aged six and 10 years, when the group attacked after cornering him in Mata Colony area around 10.30pm on Monday. The shooting was also captured on a nearby CCTV camera, in which one of the two girls was seen shouting for help as the assailants fled the spot soon after.

“Joshi’s brother informed us that he was returning from his sister’s house when the group attacked and critically injured him. We roped in six teams and arrested nine persons in connection with the incident,” said Kalanidhi Naithani, the senior superintendent of police (SSP) of Ghaziabad.

The police identified the nine suspects as Ravi Kumar, Chotu (who goes by a single name), Mohit Kumar, Dalvir Singh, Akash Nath, Yogendra Singh, Abhishek Kant, Abhishek Mota and Mohammad Shakir, adding that they were working to nab another suspect Akash Bihari, who is on the run.

All the suspects are residents of Vijay Nagar.

“The family also alleged laxity on part of the local police, saying that they did not act on their previous complaint. I have suspended the local police post-in-charge and assigned the inquiry to the circle officer (city 1),” the SSP said.

According to the police, the group, led by Ravi, fought with Joshi on July 16, as a result of which Ravi’s eye was injured and his jaw broken.

“He was hospitalised and discharged on Monday. While in the hospital, he roped in his accomplices to ‘teach Joshi a lesson’. The group cornered Joshi on Monday night and started beating him up in the presence of his daughters. One of the suspects, Chotu, opened fire from close range—Joshi was shot in the head,” said Rakesh Mishra, circle officer (city 1).

According to police sources, after the fight on July 16, the two parties lodged their complaints at the local police post. Joshi had alleged that the men had harassed his niece.

“After the fight, we had complained that the men were harassing a girl from our family, but the local police took no action. The police just called the men to the post, asked them not to do so again and let them off. On Monday around 10.30pm when my uncle was riding his motorcycle with his daughters, the group cornered him and started beating him. One of them fired a gun at his head. He is in a very critical state,” said Vimal Joshi, the victim’s nephew.

Dr Sangeeta Garg, the chief medical superintendent of Yashoda Hospital, Nehru Nagar, said, “The man has sustained a bullet injury to the head and his condition is very critical. He is admitted to the ICU and is on ventilator support.”

The police, late Tuesday evening, released a statement in which they said that the suspects would often hang about in Mata Colony area to gamble, to which Joshi and his family objected. This led to the fight on July 16, the police said.

Meanwhile, the incident drew criticism from Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the general secretary of the Congress, who slammed the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh and tweeted, “A journalist was shot because he had given police complaint against harassment of his niece.”

Akhilesh Yadav, Samajwadi Party chief and former chief minister of UP, accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Twitter and questioned how assailants could gather the courage to perpetrate such incidents.

UP’s BJP spokesperson Chandra Mohan denied the allegations of deterioration in law and order and said that the politicians were tweeting about the incident because they had no other work.

“Their work nowadays is only to tweet and levy accusations. The police acted swiftly and arrested nine persons. The reasons behind the incident are also being investigated. The politicians should have raised questions if the police had not acted,” he said.