A day after CCTV images of him enquiring about the fate of the toll booth attendant shot by a friend were made public, Manjeet Singh Monday led the police to the alleged killer.
Vijay Veer (28), a resident of Khoh village, 20 km from here, was arrested for gunning down 22-year-old Umeshkant Pandey at the Gurgaon Expressway toll plaza on September 23 for asking him to pay a fee of Rs 27.
Veer was arrested at 5.30am, an hour-and-half after Singh was nabbed from his Shikohpur village home. The police had circulated the CCTV image of Singh in villages around the toll plaza.
Jobless for two years, Veer was drunk and alone when he stopped his Bolero at the toll plaza at 12.01am on Friday, said SS Deswal, Gurgaon police commissioner.
When Pandey asked Veer for toll, he showed him the driving licence. Pandey insisted on the car’s registration certificate.
Residents of 41 villages, which gave land for the toll plaza, are exempted from paying the fee.
Veer refused to show the documents — he couldn’t have as the Bolero belongs to a friend, Ashok Kumar, a resident of Shivaji Park in Gurgaon.
{{/usCountry}}Veer refused to show the documents — he couldn’t have as the Bolero belongs to a friend, Ashok Kumar, a resident of Shivaji Park in Gurgaon.
{{/usCountry}}Khoh is not among the exempt villages.
Perhaps to avoid a confrontation and vehicle rush in his lane, Pandey lifted the boom barrier to allow Veer to pass and closed the booth window.
"Veer knocked on the window. As Pandey peeped out, Veer opened fire and sped away," said Deswal.
He then called up Singh, a gym owner, and asked him to find out about Pandey's fate. Forty-seven minutes later, Singh was at the toll plaza making enquiries — CCTV captured it all.
After the shooting, Veer returned to Sector 14 in Gurgon and had more liquor. He avoided the toll plaza and took a detour to Old Gurgaon. Next morning, he fled to Rohtak, where he bought a pair of Levi's jeans and a T-shirt.
He returned to Gurgaon on Sunday to get some accessories changed from a car-dealer, but kept the vehicle and the registration number.
The police are yet to recover the pistol used in the murder.
"Our officers reached the dealer Veer had gone to, but he didn't share the information," said the commissioner. He is likely to be booked for destruction of evidence.