Robbers shoot at 40-year-old trader in Ghaziabad, flee with ₹3 lakh

Incident occurs within 30 hours of three back-to-back shoot-outs in Ghaziabad

A day after three shoot-outs by the Ghaziabad police, three armed men allegedly shot and critically injured a 40-year-old man and took away ₹3 lakh from his car at an intersection in Vasundhara on Monday morning.

40-year-old Pawan Sharma was rushed to a hospital in Mohan Nagar from where he was taken to the Yashoda Hospital in Ghaziabad. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

According to the victim’s family, Pawan Sharma and his father Ved Prakash (62) had left their residence around 4.30am for the Sahibabad vegetable market in their car. They are fruit and vegetable commission agents.

“After we crossed the Mohan Nagar flyover and reached the Vasundhara crossing, five robbers in an Indica car overtook us and forced us to stop. Immediately, three men broke the car’s windows and started landing blows on both of us. Two other men with firearms arrived and snatched our mobile phones and car keys,” Prakash said.

When the father-son resisted the robbery, they fired at Pawan’s head, but the bullets hit his face instead. He fell down. Commuters looked on and no one came for help,” Ved Prakash said.

“The robbers snatched our bag and fled in their car on the Link Road towards Anand Vihar, Delhi. A milkman stopped his bike and helped us. Then, a private bus driver stopped and offered help to my bleeding son; he also called the police,” Ved Prakash said.

The car in which the father-son duo were travelling in. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

Pawan was rushed to a hospital in Mohan Nagar from where he was taken to the Yashoda Hospital in Ghaziabad. He is now in the ICU.

Prakash also noted the number of robbers’ car, but the number was found to be fake.

Giving a description of the robbers, he said the five men were in the 18 to 25 years age-group and one of them was shorter than average.

A complaint has been registered at the Indirapuram police station.

Superintendent of police (city) Akash Tomar said, “Several teams have been formed with officers from Sahibabad and Indirapuram. We have started investigation. It seems the robbers had specific information about the victims carrying cash.”