Auto driver staged shooting to frame lenders in Delhi's Mukherjee Nagar: Police

New Delhi, Jan 5 (PTI) Delhi Police has solved a shooting case, uncovering that the injured man had allegedly fired at himself as part of a conspiracy to falsely implicate his lenders, an official said on Monday.

The police have arrested two men -- Prabhas Pandey (53), an auto-rickshaw driver, and his associate Ashish alias Chunnu (28) -- and recovered a country-made pistol along with a fired cartridge.

"Pandey had staged the incident to frame people who were demanding repayment of money and opposing his personal relationship," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest) Bhisham Singh said in a statement.

The officer said that the case came to light in the early hours of December 28 last year, when a PCR call was received at the Mukherjee Nagar police station around 2 am, reporting that a man had been shot on the Azadpur–Kingsway Camp stretch.

A police team rushed to the spot and found Pandey with a gunshot injury near his auto-rickshaw. He was immediately taken to BJRM Hospital and later referred to Safdarjung Hospital, where doctors operated on him and recovered a bullet from his body. After regaining consciousness, Pandey gave a statement claiming that three men -- identified as Dharam Singh, Sant Kumar and Tarun Mathur -- had allegedly demanded repayment of a loan with interest and on refusal, one of them fired at him before fleeing.

Based on his complaint, an FIR was registered and an investigation was launched.

"Three teams were constituted to investigate the matter properly. Team one examined CCTV footage from in and around the spot and tracked the route taken by the complainant. Team two analysed the call detail records of Pandey as well as those of the men named in the FIR. Team three traced, detained and interrogated the three persons whom Pandey had accused in his complaint," the DCP said.

He further said that after correlating the CCTV footage, call records and other circumstantial evidences, it became clear that the version given by the complainant did not match the sequence of events. During sustained interrogation and analysis, investigators uncovered a conspiracy allegedly hatched by Pandey to falsely implicate the three men through a self-inflicted gunshot injury.

The police said Pandey, an auto driver, had come into contact with a woman through his friend Dharam Singh alias Billa, with whom she was in a live-in relationship. During Billa’s absence, Pandey allegedly developed a relationship with the woman and later pressured her to sever ties with him. He also threatened to implicate Billa in criminal cases.

"Pandey's plan was further complicated by the woman's son, Tarun Mathur, who strongly opposed the relationship and became an obstacle to his intentions. Pandey, decided to falsely implicate Tarun as well. The team also got to know that Pandey had borrowed around Rs 90,000 on interest from another acquaintance, Sant Kumar alias Bhati, and failed to repay the amount. When Bhati demanded repayment of the principal along with interest, Pandey threatened to drag him into a criminal case as well," the officer said.

The police said that Pandey roped in his associate Ashish, apprised him of the conspiracy and carried out a reconnaissance to identify a suitable location to stage the incident.

"In the early hours of December 28, after finalising the spot, Pandey called Ashish to the area. In his presence, Pandey fired a shot at his own shoulder and immediately handed over the country-made pistol to Ashish with instructions to dispose of it. After Ashish left the spot, Pandey made the PCR call, accusing the trio of shooting him. Later the same day, Ashish disposed of the weapon in the bushes in a nearby area and returned home," the DCP said.

Based on evidence gathered during the probe, both Pandey and Ashish were arrested. During questioning, Ashish led the police to the recovery of the country-made pistol. Pandey, a resident of Sonia Vihar with roots in the Sitapur district of Uttar Pradesh, allegedly has a long criminal history. PTI BM BM MNK MNK