Vashisht encounter: Police rule out foul play, say incident on CCTV

A day after a five-member special investigation team (SIT) was formed on the direction of union home minister Rajnath Singh to investigate the encounter killing of wanted conman Manoj Vashisht, its preliminary probe has revealed that he had sustained two bullet injuries.

A day after a five-member special investigation team (SIT) was formed on the direction of union home minister Rajnath Singh to investigate the encounter killing of wanted conman Manoj Vashisht, its preliminary probe has revealed that he had sustained two bullet injuries.

The first bullet wound was found at the back of his head near his left ear while the other bullet wound was found near his waist, police officers privy to the probe said. Even as special cell sleuths who were part of the operation claimed that only one bullet was fired from their side, investigators are now waiting for Vashisht’s autopsy report to ascertain if the second bullet wound was caused by the bullet fired by him.

Special cell sleuths have rejected Vashisht’s family’s foul play theory saying the arrest was being made in full public view at a restaurant, which has CCTV cameras installed at the eating hall. “At no point the suspect was nabbed secretly or kept in confinement before gunning him down to make it look like a shootout case. In this case, every action and reaction of the cops was recorded in CCTV cameras and witnessed by around 50 people,” a special cell officer said.

HT has a copy of Vashisht’s weapon licence that was issued to him in 2004 at Meerut in Uttar Pradesh. The validity of his gun licence expired in April 2014, but Vashisht was still carrying the weapon with him, police said.

“Not only his gun’s licence had expired, Vashisht was using the weapon illegally in Delhi as the licence did not have the all-India permit. As per the rule, the use of the weapon was limited only in UP,” said a senior police officer associated with the probe.