Bikers go on shooting spree, kill 3

Assailants shot dead three men in a shooting frenzy in south Delhi on Friday and, 24 hours later, the same men fired at two others, the latest in a series highlighting the growing use of guns by criminals in the Capital.

Two assailants on motorcycles shot dead two men as they sipped cold drinks in south Delhi’s Amar Colony around 8.30pm Friday.

Thirty minutes later, the fleeing attackers, joined by two more accomplices at Amar Colony, shot dead another man bound for home near Andrews Ganj.

Next day around 8pm, the four assailants shot at two grocery shop owners in south Delhi’s Madangir. They were rushed to the Batra Hospital, where they are said to be out of danger.

Police identified the dead in the Amar Colony killings as Ashneet Singh and Harjeet Singh. Both were friends. Police said personal enmity could be the motive.

The assailants then fled, joined by two accomplices on a motorcycle they snatched from Ashneet.

As the stolen motorcycle ran out of fuel near the Andrews Ganj traffic intersection, the attackers stopped a passerby and asked him to part with his motorcycle.

Coming to his help, Sanjeev Suri, who was passing by, intervened in the scuffle but was shot in the abdomen by the attackers. He died on the spot. Suri worked at the Intercontinental in Nehru Place and was on way home.

The killers then abandoned Ashneet’s vehicle and fled on the robbed motorcycle towards Dhaula Kuan, police said.

Ashneet, who earlier worked for Vodafone in Noida, recently left his job. “On Friday he had appeared for an interview in Gurgaon and was quite upbeat he would get the job. My son did not have any enemies. He was a quiet person and never fought with anyone. His mother has not been able to take the news,” said Jaspal Singh, his father. He has two sisters and a brother and lived in Garhi.

His friend Harjeet dealt in import and export and had a showroom at Govindpuri. “My son got a call from Ashneet around 7pm, who asked him to meet him at the Amar Colony market. We got to know around 9pm that he had been shot. He was admitted at the AIIMS Trauma Centre, where he died,” said Kanwaljeet Singh, his father. Harjeet lived in East of Kailash.

The shooting spree highlights the growing use of guns by criminals in the Capital. On July 9, two men shot dead a gangster and were killed by his associates before they could escape in northeast Delhi’s Seelampur in a shootout that saw assailants roam the streets freely.

On the same day, two armed assailants gunned down a cashier on the busy Vikas Marg when he resisted their robbery attempt.