Woman who was shot at in robbery attempt near Golf Course Extension Road dies

A 26-year-old woman who was shot at in the head by three masked men during a robbery attempt near Golf Course Extension Road died while undergoing treatment at a

A 26-year-old woman who was shot at in the head by three masked men during a robbery attempt near Golf Course Extension Road died while undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Sector 38. The deceased, Pooja Sharma, was returning home in her car on Tuesday night when the incident took place.

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Sharma had been on a ventilator since she was admitted to the hospital and had not gained consciousness, said police, adding that her family arrived from Raipur in Chhattisgarh on Wednesday.

The police said they have questioned more than 80 people in the last two days, but they are yet to make headway in the case. Police commissioner KK Rao said that they have questioned 26 criminals, 30 drug addicts and about 30 snatchers who were arrested in the past from Golf Course Extension Road this year and were out on bail.

“We are hopeful of cracking the case soon. Six teams are working on this case and are questioning friends, relatives and colleagues to get some leads,” he said. The police are also probing the possibility of the attack having being carried out by the Sharma’s acquaintances.

Rao said the hospital informed the police about the Sharma’s death around 2.30pm on Thursday, following which Section 302 (murder) was added to the First Information Report (FIR) on Thursday night.

Hospital sources said that woman succumbed to her injuries around 2.30 pm. They refused to share further details.

Sagar Manchanda, a man who Sharma was to marry, was with her in the car at the time of the incident but escaped the gunshot fired at him, the police said. Manchanda 30, is a software engineer and is an IIT-Roorkee graduate. Sharma was a software engineer and also had an MBA. She had joined the company Manchanda was working in one-and-a-half years ago.

Police said that Manchanda lives in Sector 40 with his mother, while Sharma stayed with her uncle in Delhi.

A special investigation team (SIT) was formed on Thursday, headed by assistant commissioner of police (crime) and meeting was called by Rao in this regard. Four of the deputy commissioners will also probe the case and submit a daily report to Rao.

Preet Pal Sangwan, ACP (crime), said that on Tuesday, Sharma had come to Gurugram to collect her laptop from her office, after which she and Manchanda drove to his Sector 40 residence. “Their wedding was postponed due to Covid-19 and because of the lockdown, she had shifted to her uncle’s place in Delhi as they were shopping for the wedding,” he said.

Sharma and Manchanda were returning after visiting his under-construction apartment, when the robbers waylaid them near Sector 65, about 50 metres from Golf Course Extension Road. Sharma was at the wheel when 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.

Sangwan said that the suspects did not ask them to get down or to hand over their car keys. “They shot at them without uttering a single word. This is the reason we are looking at all angles, if the suspects were known to both of them and had any old enmity with either of them,” he said.

Manchanda had driven Sharma to the hospital after the assailants fled the scene after firing at Sharma.

The police have scanned more than 15 CCTV footages and confirmed that three men were seen coming towards them from the wrong side of the road, but the registration number of the motorbike they were on was found to be fake. “Due to it being dark, the pictures of the suspects were not clear and they were seen fleeing towards Sector 57. Our teams have scanned more than 250 CCTV cameras from different spots on the stretch but only 15 were relevant,” said Sangwan.

The body of the woman will be handed over to the family members after a post-mortem examination on Friday, the police said.