Faridabad: 30-year-old stalker who shot at minor girl injured in encounter

Police said he had shot her from a close range outside her library on Monday, resulting in bullet injuries in her shoulder and forearm and splinter injuries in the face.

Three days after a 17-year-old girl was shot while returning home from the library in Faridabad, the man, who had been stalking her for several months, was shot in the leg while trying to flee from police custody at Kabulpur village in Faridabad late Wednesday night, police said on Thursday.

Jitendra alias Jatin Mangla, 30, originally from Saramathla in Sohna, Gurugram, was arrested on Wednesday evening.

Jitendra alias Jatin Mangla, 30, originally from Saramathla in Sohna, Gurugram, was arrested on Wednesday evening.

Investigators said that Mangla had confessed that he was carrying another country-made pistol and ammunition inside his backpack besides the one which he had used to shoot at the minor girl. The first pistol was recovered by police from the crime spot. A crime branch team took him to Kabulpur to recover the ammunition.

Assistant commissioner of police (ACP) (crime) Varun Dahiya said that afterwards, Mangla took the team to another nearby location in the fields where he had kept the other loaded country made pistol.

“When he was asked by police to show the hidden pistol, the suspect suddenly took out the pistol hidden beneath a heap of stones and opened fire on the team. He ran away from the spot when crime branch team in charge Joginder (single name) opened fire with a warning shot,” he said, adding that the suspect kept running away when police finally shot him in the left leg, leaving him injured.

“A second FIR for an attempt to murder police personnel was registered against him at Sector 58 police station on Wednesday night. He was produced before a court on Thursday and taken on two-day police remand for interrogation,” Dahiya said.

Dahiya said that Mangla was so desperate to talk with the minor girl that he had purchased eight SIM cards in quick succession last month as she was blocking all his new numbers.

“We are verifying if any of them were purchased using forged documents.There is a strong possibility that he might have hurt others due to his obsession with the minor,” he said.

According to police, the 17-year-old girl, a class-XII student, and Mangla, who worked in the accounts section of an educational institution, had joined a library at Shyam Colony a year back. He started harassing the minor by repeatedly asking her to be his friends. He used to follow her on foot while she used to return home from the library.

Police said he had shot her from a close range outside her library on Monday, resulting in bullet injuries in her shoulder and forearm and splinter injuries in the face. An attempt to murder case was registered against him at City Ballabgarh police station on Monday.