People clicked photos as judge’s wife, son bled on road, recounts witness at Gurugram shooting
Ritu Garg, 38, and Dhruv Garg, 18, were shot by the judge’s personal security officer, Mahipal Singh, in broad daylight at Arcadia Market in Sector 49. Ritu died due to excessive bleeding later that night and Dhruv was declared brain dead on Tuesday.
The 30-year-old mechanical engineer, who took the wife and son of an additional district and sessions judge to a hospital on October 13 after they were shot at, said if people had helped instead of clicking pictures and making videos, at least the woman might have survived.
Ritu Garg, 38, and Dhruv Garg, 18, were shot by the judge’s personal security officer, Mahipal Singh, in broad daylight at Arcadia Market in Sector 49. Ritu died due to excessive bleeding later that night and Dhruv was declared brain dead on Tuesday.
Anil Antil, a resident of Murthal, Sonipat, who has been looking for a job in the city for the past one month, was visiting the Arcadia Market to buy grocery when the incident took place.
“I remember that afternoon very well. People were taking photographs and recording videos of a woman and a boy who were lying in a pool of blood in the parking area of the market ,” said Antil. He said he was returning to his friend’s apartment from the market when he saw a crowd of around 100 people on the road.
“I stopped to check and found a severely injured woman and a boy lying in a pool of blood within a distance of few metres. I saw people were busy recording videos and clicking pictures but no one was making an effort to take them to hospital.That’s when I started requesting autorickshaw drivers to help me to take the injured to a hospital,” said Antil.
Read | Over 40 people watched as guard shot judge’s wife and son in Gurugram, no one helped
The 30-year-old said people were not ready to help as they feared “police trouble”.He said he repeatedly asked bystanders to help him take the victims to a hospital but he was told that it was a police case. “I had no idea what exactly had happened. I asked many people but no one helped. I stopped several auto rickshaws but no one was ready to take them as both the woman and her son were bleeding profusely. After five minutes, I managed to stop two auto drivers who agreed to take them to a hospital,” said Antil.
Sumit Kuhar, deputy commissioner of police (crime), confirmed that Antil was the only one who took Ritu and Dhruv to the hospital. “He rode with Ritu in one auto while the boy was taken to the hospital in another auto with no one to attend to him but the driver,” said Kuhar.
Read | Gurugram shooting: Police want accused’s browser history from Google, FB, WhatsApp and YouTube
Antil said Ritu was urging him to take her to a hospital as soon as possible. “I put the her on the rear seat of auto, picked up her purse and glasses, and put the boy in another auto with the help of three others. The boy was semi-conscious,” said Antil, adding that he had pressed the woman’s bullet wound hard with his handkerchief to stop bleeding, but “it did not help much”.
