Neeraj Bawana gang shooter held after Delhi shootout, 3 others held

A shooter of the Neeraj Bawana and Naveen Bhanja gang was arrested on Thursday after a brief shootout in south Delhi, apart from three accomplices that included a juvenile elsewhere, police said.

Main accused Saddam Hussain, 24, suffered a bullet injury in his leg when he tried to escape after opening fire on a police team near Millennium Park at Sarai Kale Khan.

"A trap was laid in the area on a tip-off. When police signalled Saddam, who was riding a two-wheeler, to stop around 6 a.m., he tried to escape after firing at police. He was hit in the leg while policemen were saved by bulletproof jackets they were wearing," Joint Commissioner of Police (Southern Range) Devesh Chandra Srivastava said.

Srivastava identified the other arrested accused as Sunny, 30, who was arrested from Aliganj in Kotla Mubarakpur on Wednesday. Subeg, 26, was arrested from Mussoorie in Uttarakhand.

The officer said the gang was in police cross-hairs after two men fired four shots outside Vijay Singh's house in Aliganj on July 25. "The gang also called up Vijay, threatened him and demanded protection money," the officer said.

"Technical and human surveillance on suspects was mounted on Vijay's complaint and the arrests made thereafter," he added.

Police said a pistol, two cartridges, and a stolen motorcycle were seized from Saddam.

The JCP said that the arrests in the case indicated that despite a majority of gang members in jail, they were running their extortion business in Delhi.

Meanwhile, a video clipping on the shootout was doing the rounds, wherein Saddam is seen lying unattended in a pool of blood on a footpath for quite some time and police officials present at the spot recording videos instead of taking him to hospital.

--IANS

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