NEW DELHI: A police raid on a duo with criminal antecedents in northeast Delhi’s Khajuri Khas on Thursday turned into a gunbattle in which the two men were killed and two police personnel received bullet wounds. A huge cache of arms and ammunition was recovered from the second-floor room in Shri Ram Colony that police suspect was to have reached criminal gangs in the capital.
The Khajuri Khas police station was informed around 3am about the presence of two men wanted in several criminal cases, Amir Khan and Rajman, at Shri Ram Colony. The police teams tried for two hours to get the pair to surrender, but the desperados replied that they would blow up the building and kill everyone if they were attacked. When the cops approached the locked room, they were met with gunfire.
In the shootout, constables Sachin Khokar and Kalik Tomar were hit on their legs. However, sustained police action led to the deaths of Khan and Rajman. A police team from Khajuri Khas had joined Begumpur cops in first asking the duo to give up, and on being attacked, retaliating.
Two men holed up inside house opened fire as cops tried to break open door
Police had taken care to first evacuate 15 people from the building being raided before trying to deal with the ensconced criminals.
Sanjay Kumar Sain, DCP (northeast) said, "It was a joint operation by two police stations. The owner of the building confirmed the presence of the two persons in a room on the second floor. Other residents of the building were first evacuated. Then, police officers knocked on the door and asked the men inside, identified as Amir Khan and Rajman, both with around 12 previous criminal involvements each, to come out. They responded by threatening to blow up the entire building and kill themselves in the process. The police team continued asking them to surrender, but they paid no heed."
Another police team climbed from the rear and reached the window, from where they could see that both Khan and Rajman had pistols in their hands. Sensing the presence of cops, the duo opened fire.
After asking a resident for a hammer, some policemen planned to break open the door of the room. But as the uniformed men moved closer to the door, the criminals again started shooting. The cops retaliated, and, in the ensuing melee, constables Khokar and Tomar received injuries. Police firing eventually felled the two men hiding inside. The injured constables and the criminals were taken to a hospital, where the accused men were declared dead on arrival. The injured constables are being treated.
"Seven bags containing cash, ammunition, clothes and some wires were recovered from the room," DCP Sain said. Crime and forensic teams later combed the site for clues. The house owner, Rajesh Gupta, apparently hadn’t carried out tenant verification when renting out the space around a fortnight ago. Sain said a case had also been filed against Gupta under Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code for disobedience of an order promulgated by a public servant.
