Man, 26, shot at by wife's brother over inter-faith marriage

New Delhi: A 26-year-old man was late on Saturday night shot at by his brother-in-law in the Model Town area of the Capital, allegedly over his inter-faith marriage to his sister. The victim, identified as Deva, has been admitted to the nearest hospital with several gunshot wounds and is undergoing treatment. His condition is said to be critical.

Deva, a resident of Adarsh Nagar in North Delhi, had recently married Heena in court after both their families had disagreed with their marriage. The Delhi Police on Sunday said they had arrested two people, including Shahnawaz, Heena's brother, for attempting to kill Deva.

At midnight on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday, the Model Town police station received a call about a person lying on the side of a road with bullet shot injuries near the Shalimar Park there. Following this, the victim was moved to a hospital.

Deva's wife, Heena said that her family had called Deva on Saturday saying they wanted to meet her. They had married each other three months ago, she said, adding that Deva then agreed to take her to see her parents. "My husband agreed to take me to my parents' house and everything was normal there. Later my husband dropped me at Model Town, and then also received a call from my brother. Later, when he did not come back for a long time, I incessantly called him and after several times of my call, police personnel informed me over his phone about the incident and asked me to rush to the hospital."

The Delhi Police said that Shahnawaz and his friend Hrithik had rode in on Deva's motorcycle with him before shooting him in his head and several other parts of his body and fleeing from the spot. "The accused along with two others (pillion riders) came on a motorcycle. Both the pillion riders shot him with a country-made pistol-type weapon and fled away," the investigation report mentioned. The accused Shahnawaz is a resident of the Jahangirpuri area.

While asked, the victim's brother Ravi told Millennium Post that the couple got married in July and started living in a rented accommodation of B block of Jahangirpuri. Later, the family members of Deva had also filed a missing complaint when he did not return home for a long time. Eventually, both Deva's and Heena's families got to know about their court marriage.

In the few months of their marriage, neither Deva nor Heena had been in touch with their families until Saturday's call.

Having registered an attempt to murder case, along with other relevant sections of the IPC and Arms Act, the police managed to nab the suspects in six hours.

The police said that Heena had identified the accused persons as her brother Shahanwaj aka Shahbaz aka Appu and Hrithik aka Aryan, resident of Badaun of Uttar Pradesh.

Meanwhile, one live cartridge and an Enfield Bullet motorcycle of Deva's has been recovered from their possession. The police added that both accused persons have disclosed details regarding the commission of the crime and that further investigation is going on.