8 held in Qutub Minar murder case

The Delhi Police have arrested eight persons in connection to the murder of a man and the injuring of another near Qutub Minar in South Delhi on Monday last.

One of these suspects had a monetary dispute with a property dealer. When an argument over that row turned ugly, the accused brought his men along in two cars and rained bullets on the property dealer and his friend. While the property dealer escaped death from bullet injuries, his friend succumbed.

The accused have been identified as Neeraj (31), Arvind Kumar Gupta (30), Karanjit (22), Ravinder Pawar (24), Kamal (30), Jagmohan Sagar (30), Dhrup (28) and Kartik (30).

According to the police, neither the dead, nor the injured had much to do with the monetary dispute, which led to the shoot-out. The guns were actually aimed at the friend, Narender, who had lent some money to property dealer Neeraj. Narender, however, managed to escape uninjured.

Narender would pester Neeraj to return his money, but to no avail. Neeraj, along with two of his associates, decided to meet Narender at a tea shop in Lado Sarai at 11 am on Monday last, to settle the dispute once and for all. The discussion, however, turned ugly with Narender threatening Neeraj of consequences if he did not return his money.

“Neeraj left the spot with two of associates only to gather five more. Together, they arranged for firearms, two cars and two motorcycles and returned to the spot at 1.30 pm,” said the police on Sunday.

The masked men then fired at Narender and his friends before fleeing the spot in their vehicles. While one Sonu died at the AIIMS trauma centre, injured Surender is undergoing treatment for his bullet wounds.

Once Neeraj was identified as the primary suspect in the case, a manhunt for him and his associates was launched. “Raids were conducted across Allahabad, Kanpur, Aligarh, Varanasi, Haridwar and Ajmer apart from Delhi. Leads on the locations of the suspects were received after the interrogation of over 50 persons,” police said.