Woman shot at in robbery attempt near Golf Course Extension Road

A 26-year-old woman executive was shot in the head by three unidentified men near Sector 65, about 50 metres from Golf Course Extension Road in the city on Tuesday

A 26-year-old woman executive was shot in the head by three unidentified men near Sector 65, about 50 metres from Golf Course Extension Road in the city on Tuesday night, in a suspected robbery attempt. She is undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Sector 38 and her condition is stated to be critical.

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According to the police, the woman and her soon-to-be fiance were returning home in a car after having dinner, when assailants fired at them after a failed attempt to rob them of their car.

The woman, Pooja Sharma, of Chhattisgarh, lives in a rented accommodation in Sector 40. Sharma and her companion, Sagar Manchanda (30), of Roorkee in Uttarakhand, work for a multinational IT company in Gurugram. The police said that they were about to get engaged.

The incident took place after 11pm, when they were out for a drive and Sharma was at the wheel.

Preet Pal Sangwan, the assistant commissioner of police (ACP), crime, said that Sharma started driving the vehicle after crossing Kherki Daula toll plaza towards Southern Peripheral Road (SPR). Both of them went to see Manchanda’s under-construction apartment in Sector 65, near Golf Course Extension Road.

“While they were returning to Sector 40, after crossing the road near an international school, they spotted three men on a motorbike approaching them on the wrong side on the road. When the trio intercepted them, Sharma applied brakes. Two men got down and pointed pistols at their glass window panes,” he said.

Manchanda said they had immediately locked the car as they were scared. “One man came to my side and asked to roll down the window. Another went towards Pooja’s side. One of them shot at me as I did not follow his instruction but I escaped. Seeing this, Pooja tried to press the accelerator and the suspect standing close to her glass window shot her in the head,” he said.

Manchanda said the three suspects, upon seeing Sharma fall on the steering wheel, fled the spot on their motorbike. “I had no time to shift Pooja from the seat. I sat on her legs and drove towards a private hospital in Sector 38 and informed the police and her family members,” he said.

He shifted her with help of a person after crossing the stretch, where he saw movement of people.

A team from the Sector 65 police station that was patrolling in the stretch reached the spot and later the hospital. They recorded Manchanda’s statement, based on which a case under sections 307 (attempt to murder), 34 (common intention of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sections of Arms Act, 1959, was registered at Sector 65 police station against unidentified masked men. A probe is in progress, said police.

Sangwan said that Manchanda, in his statement, told police that they had dinner at a restaurant in Sector 31 and left for a drive towards the Delhi-Jaipur Expressway around 8pm. After crossing Kherki Daula toll plaza, they took left on the SPR and visited a society in Sector 65, as he wanted to show her his apartment. “They had crossed the Sector 65 road around 11.15pm when they spotted three masked men on a motorbike, but ignored them. The trio then followed them from the wrong side after they crossed the road,” he said.

The police are scanning CCTV camera footage from different locations to identify the suspects. Sangwan said they are probing all the details and also looking at an angle of possible rivalry. “We have recovered more than nine CCTV footage where the car and motorbike are seen, but due to it being dark, we could not identify the bike’s registration number. The exact reason will be ascertained after the suspects are arrested,” he added.