Gunfire rings again in heart of Delhi, snatchers trade shots with police

On Wednesday, the sound of the firing, as bullets were exchanged between police and the men startled residents near Shankar Market’s railway colony.

At least nine rounds were fired in the heart of central Delhi on Wednesday in a shoot-out between four alleged snatchers and a police team near a railway colony behind Shankar Market in Connaught Place. Two of the suspects were injured, and later arrested from the spot; a third suspect was nabbed while trying to flee, while the fourth managed to escape, police said.

A view of the spot where an encounter between Delhi Police personnel and group of criminals occurred, at the railway line near Shankar Market in New Delhi. (Arvind Yadav/HT PHOTO)

A sub-inspector, Amit Kumar, was struck on his bulletproof vest, but survived the encounter unharmed.

The incident came on the day Hindustan Times reported that incidents of shooting in the national capital have become a “disturbing and scary” trend, with an HT analysis revealing that at least 1,017 bullets were fired on the streets of the city between January 1 and October 18, 2019, in 310 incidents that claimed at least 102 lives.

What is worrying is that several of these incidents, like the one on Wednesday, are being reported from busy areas in east, central, south and west Delhi, rather than the city’s more notorious outer reaches.

In Wednesday’s incident, at around 5am, two people riding a black Bajaj Pulsar motorcycle were spotted by a police team on a narrow underpass behind Shankar Market. The police team was deployed at the spot because, during investigations into two cases of snatching last week, sleuths discovered through closed circuit television (CCTV) camera footage that the men involved in those crimes were using the underpass to escape the Connaught Place area.

The police team received a tip-off that the gang would again strike in Connaught Place early on Wednesday. “Our teams were stationed near Shankar Market, and were keeping a watch on the underpass. Around 5 am, the two suspects on the black motorcycle were intercepted, but the pillion rider opened fire on our team. Sub-inspector Amit Kumar, who was hit on his bulletproof jacket, retaliated, injuring the pillion rider in the leg. At the same time, another member of our team shot the person riding the bike in his leg just as he was about to open fire,” Singhal said, adding that the police fired six shots, while the suspects fired three in the shoot-out.

The pillion rider was identified as Mohammad Salim, 22, a resident of Shastri Park, and the driver as Mohammad Ismail,24, who lives in a cluster settlement at Mata Sundari Lane near ITO.

The police team then spotted a Grand i10 car parked in the vicinity, and aware of the modus operandi of the alleged snatchers, charged towards the vehicle. One of the people in the car, Saud, 22, a native of Badaun in Uttar Pradesh, was caught, but his associate managed to flee. Police have not revealed his name as the investigation is ongoing.

The police recovered a bicycle and an iPhone — which the four men allegedly snatched last Friday in Connaught Place’s L Block — from information gathered during the interrogation of the three arrested suspects. Their role is also being probed in an incident in which an Indian Air Force officer’s bag was snatched at Connaught Place last Thursday. The police have also recovered ₹95,000 in cash, 10 mobile phones, two gold chains, and a stolen motorcycle. The Pulsar bike and the Grand i10 car they were using were also stolen, police said.

Just like shootings, snatchings have also become a major law-and-order concern in the Capital. Last month, an HT analysis revealed that Delhi Police were registering several cases of snatching, which is classified as a heinous street crime, as simple theft.

In at least 100 first information reports (FIRs) registered between January 1 and September 20, reviewed by HT, victims complained to Delhi Police that bike-borne assailants “snatched” their belongings — such as jewellery, money or mobile phones — but police registered FIRs under Section 379 (theft) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) instead of sections 356 (assault or criminal force to commit theft) and 392 (robbery).

This is important because experts say street crime is seen as a direct reflection of a city’s law-and-order situation and policing.

The Delhi Police denied that the practice was a trend across the city, and asked the senior-most officers of each police district to monitor the registration of snatching FIRs across the city. It also maintains that snatching cases have declined in comparison to the previous years.

Retired IPS officer Vikram Singh, who served as Uttar Pradesh’s director general of police, said, “The past six months in Delhi were full of violent crimes, especially the snatching cases in Delhi. (But) what happened on Wednesday morning (the shoot-out) should have happened last year. I congratulate Delhi Police for the encounter. This is proactive policing.”

On Wednesday, the sound of the firing, as bullets were exchanged between police and the men startled residents near Shankar Market’s railway colony. “My husband sleeps outside the house on a cot. Initially, he thought it was the sound of firecrackers but when he woke up and saw some police movement, he rushed inside. We later stepped out of our houses and saw police vehicles. We saw them taking some injured men to a hospital in a vehicle,” said Savita Kashyap, a homemaker, who lives barely 30 metres from the underpass.

Former IPS officer, Ajai Raj Sharma, who was the Delhi Police commissioner between 1999 and 2002 said the force must re-instill the fear of law among criminals . “Criminals dare to fire shots on the roads only when they know that the presence of police is insufficient or when they are not being chased. Even if crimes are not reported, areas that are prone to crime must be raided frequently or have adequate policing,” he said.

The Delhi Police spokesperson, deputy commissioner of police Mandeep Randhawa, said on Tuesday that there has been a big increase in the seizure of firearms and ammunition in 2019. The officer said that the police have, in the last few months, busted illegal arms factories outside Delhi. He also maintained that the use of firearms in heinous crimes has declined compared to previous years.