GTB shooting: Trio, including juvenile shooter, arrested
An investigator said the boy and his associates hid at their friends’ houses and in old dilapidated buildings to evade police. However, they were identified with the help of CCTV footage
Delhi Police on Thursday arrested three people who were allegedly involved in the murder of a patient at GTB Hospital on Sunday, including a 16-year-old who reportedly shot the man dead.
Police said interrogation revealed that there were two shooters who entered the ward, with both firing five to six rounds between them, and two people waited outside.
According to police, the juvenile said that he and another shooter, who is absconding, went to the ward. The juvenile fired first but his pistol got jammed after the first bullet. The second scooter then fired three rounds, and the juvenile quickly fixed his weapon and fired two rounds, police said.
Police said that the three were among the four who were at the hospital on the day of the incident. The accused planned to kill a rival gangster, Waseem, 33, but mistakenly killed another patient in the same ward.
Deputy commissioner of police (Shahdara) Surendra Chaudhary said the team scanned over 400 CCTV cameras, covering 80-100km in Delhi, to look for the accused. “We thought they fled to Loni and western UP as their associates did but the trio stayed in Delhi. Four persons came to GTB on the day of the incident. Two shooters went to the ward where they fired four to five bullets. The other two waited at emergency exits,” he said.
An investigator said the boy and his associates hid at their friends’ houses, and in old dilapidated buildings to evade police. However, they were identified with the help of CCTV footage.
The investigator said they travelled from Dilshad Garden, Seelampur, Okhla and Badarpur border to Brahmapuri to prevent arrest.
The arrested accused were identified as Saif, 19, and Foujan, 22. The name of the 16-year-old shooter is being withheld because he is a minor. Police did not reveal the name of the second shooter, who is missing.
Police said Saif and Foujan stood guard at the emergency gates at the time of the incident. They fled on a bike and e-rickshaws after the incident.
This takes the number of arrests in the case to six. Moin Khan, 19, Faiz Khan, 20, and Md Farhaan, 21, were earlier arrested in Loni, Ghaziabad and Delhi. “We found their Instagram accounts and identified all the men involved. They would post reels about weapons, gangs and violence. The accused were trying to inspire 20-30 juveniles who wanted to be part of the Hashim Baba gang,” the DCP said. “The juvenile shooter would boast about his crimes. He is involved in at least three previous criminal cases. He told us that another gangster, Anas Khan, helped them. Anas told them that Waseem and his gang killed one of their friends earlier. He also asked them to kill Waseem saying that he attacked their associate with a blade inside jail,” a second investigator said, requesting anonymity.
DCP Chaudhary said Anas was also behind an earlier attack on Waseem, on June 12, when he was shot four times near the Welcome area.