Two toll plaza staffers shot dead by unidentified men in Badarpur

Two persons were shot at by unidentified men at a toll plaza in Badarpur, Delhi, early on Sunday morning.

In a case of attempted robbery, four armed people shot a cashier and a security guard near an MCD toll collection booth in Badarpur on Sunday morning. The attackers fled with a bag without realising that it was empty, police said.

Two people were shot at by unidentified men at a toll plaza in Badarpur early on Sunday morning (ANI Photo)

The victims were rushed to the Apollo Hospital, where the doctors declared them dead on arrival.

The incident occurred around 7 am on the ground floor of a building, located about 500 metres away from the Badarpur toll plaza. Though police were initially told that as much as Rs 2 crore had gone missing from the scene of the crime, they eventually confirmed that the money was intact.

The victims were identified as cashier Manmohan Singh Sharma, 60, from Rajasthan and gunman Mahipal, 40, both of whom had joined the private cash collection agency operating the toll plaza on behalf of the MCD around two months ago.

Though robbery seemed to be the primary motive behind the attack, police were also looking into personal enmity angle.

Deputy commissioner of police (southeast) Mandeep Singh Randhawa said that Sharma and Mahipal were having tea in their room when the four entered and began shooting. The attackers managed to flee without being spotted by any of the other toll plaza employees.

Confirming that the bag taken by the attackers was empty, Randhawa said, “No cash was robbed from the building. We are trying to find out how much money collected as toll was kept there at the time of the robbery.”

Badarpur police registered a case, and four teams were constituted to investigate the shootings. A preliminary probe held two persons living in a rented apartment near the building as possible perpetrators of the crime.

Identifying the suspects as Deepak and Thakur, students preparing for the Delhi Police recruitment examination, police said they have been missing since the time of the crime. “We have identified all the four suspects. Efforts are on to arrest them at the earliest,” said an officer.