Scrap dealer falls to death during police raid

Greater Noida: A 27-year-old scrap dealer died after allegedly falling from his third-floor flat in Sector Omicron after a police team conducted a raid in search of a wanted criminal on Monday.

The deceased was identified as Chand Quraishi. Police said that the team had visited Quraishi’s flat in search of his brother-in-law, Imran, who is wanted in a case of vehicle theft and firing at a police party. Police said that Quraishi was also involved in 14 criminal cases.

Rajesh Kumar Singh, deputy commissioner of police, Greater Noida, said that Imran had escaped during an encounter on April 7 this year.

According to police, Imran and his accomplice Bandi had been spotted in a car on April 7 and asked to stop by a police team. Then the duo opened fire at the police team and sped up, but the team chased down the suspects and forced them to stop, police officials said.

Police arrested Bandi while Imran managed to escape. The DCP said that the police team received information that Imran sometimes visits his in-laws’ place in Sector Omicron.

“A police team on Monday conducted a search at Imran’s in-laws’ third floor rented accommodation, but found him missing. During the raid, his brothers-in-law Chand Quraishi and Lukman were in the flat. Quraishi got scared and he locked himself in the washroom and tried to climb down through a window. The window could not bear his weight and it broke and he fell to the ground,” the DCP said.

Quraishi was admitted to a private hospital in Greater Noida where he died, police said.

However, Quraishi’s younger brother Lukman alleged that police caught him and his brother and thrashed them. “We were beaten up badly as we failed to tell Imran’s whereabouts to police. The police team then pushed my brother from the third floor,” he alleged.

However, the police officials have denied the allegations.

The DCP said Quraishi was also a co-accused in the murder of sub-inspector Athar Khan in 2017. Khan was killed in a shootout when he had gone to arrest another criminal, police said.