27-year-old rivalry: Ex-wrestling champ held for attempted murder

new delhi: Twenty-seven years after his uncle was murdered, a 19-year-old Kunal, a junior wrestling champion, was arrested for attempting to kill the person who was allegedly involved in his uncle's murder, Delhi Police said on Monday.

Police said the rivalry between Kunal's family and the victim's family spanned decades and the victim — Pawan — had in 1993 suspected that Kunal's uncle was planning to kill him and so in a pre-emptive move eliminated him.

While Kunal was yet to be born at the time, police said he planned Pawan's killing for around one and a half years and finally shot at him on Sunday evening, failing to kill him. Pawan has been accused in around 11 cases and had even been convicted and sentenced to life in a murder case but was out on parole.

Police said that Kunal had tried to kill Pawan with one of his associates, identified as Naveen (22). "On Sunday, he (Pawan) along with Sompal and Laxman were sitting near Chawla Transport Gali Church Wali. At about 05:30 PM, two boys came there on a bike and one of them fired on the complainant. The bullet touched the complainant and hit one Laxman in his stomach, so they got injuries," DCP (North) Monika Bhardwaj said.

The DCP said that it was difficult to ascertain which one of his rivals had attacked him as Pawan was already involved in several criminal cases. Finally, the team zeroed in on Kunal, who was later arrested. During the probe, his other associate was also nabbed, DCP Bhardwaj added.

According to an official, the dispute between both the families started in the year 1990 over supremacy. "Kunal's uncle had assaulted Pawan in 1990 and Pawan had murdered him in 1993. To take revenge, Kunal procured a country-made gun and shot at Pawan. Accused Kunal has also won gold at the national level in 2017, in the junior category," the DCP said.