War over office chair leads to job termination and attempted murder in Gurugram
At around 11.30am on Wednesday, one of the employees, identified as Aman Jangra, 24, shot his former colleague Vishal Singh, 23, in the chest
Gurugram For two consecutive days, two employees working at the headquarters of a financial firm in Gurugram’s Sector-44 clashed over an ordinary black office chair. On the first day — Tuesday — both were warned by the company management to resolve their differences, but when the two got into a scuffle over the chair on Wednesday, they were both fired and asked to leave the office immediately.
The company thought the matter ended there. But one of the employees had other ideas.
At around 11.30am on Wednesday, one of the employees, identified as Aman Jangra, 24, shot his former colleague Vishal Singh, 23, in the chest. Police said the incident occurred minutes after they were both kicked out of the office, and took place around 150m away from the company building.
Singh is currently recuperating in hospital, while Jangra is on the run.
According to Singh’s family, he had been working at the firm for only six months, and this was his first job.
Preet Pal Sangwan, assistant commissioner of police (crime-I), said as per preliminary investigations, Singh was shot over a dispute about sitting on a particular chair. “However, further details will become clear only after Jangra gets arrested as Singh is not in a condition to give an official statement to police yet,” he said. “Crime teams are very close to his location, and we expect that he will be arrested by Friday.”
Police did not immediately say how Jangra managed to get hold of a gun, but noted that the 24-year-old, originally from Hisar, had quarters in Kanhai village — located across the road.
HT approached the public relations and legal team of the financial firm, but the company refused to comment, saying it is a police case. The company provided an email address where queries could be addressed, but no response on the incident was immediately provided.
A senior executive at the financial firm, who is not authorised to speak to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity, said on Tuesday morning, Singh and Jangra first fought about sitting on a particular office chair. The matter escalated, the executive said, and their team heads and the Human Resources (HR) department was informed of their altercation.
“They were both let off with warnings and severe reprimands. However, on Wednesday, they got into a scuffle over the chair again. The two were called by the senior management and were asked to resign and leave the premises,” the executive said, adding that they got to know about the shooting soon after it happened.
Singh’s brother Mohit, said Wednesday was usually his day off, but he had been called into office because he wanted to take leave on Thursday to attend a family function.
“After reaching the office, he found Jangra sitting on the chair on which he used to sit regularly. He approached his team leader and complained…. This led to an altercation, which snowballed into a scuffle,” Mohit, who is the complainant in the case, said.
Soon after they were sacked, Mohit said, his brother was boarding an auto-rickshaw when Jangra walked up to him and shot him in the chest. Singh was rushed to hospital, but is now out of danger.
“Vishal had never said anything about Aman before. But after gaining consciousness on Thursday morning, he told me that it was Aman who shot him,” Mohit said. “Doctors said the bullet had exited his body, but a part of his lung has been damaged.”
