After prolonged fistfight, police duo nabs wanted car thief

On Wednesday night, head constable Vijay Kumar and constable Sanjay were patrolling the Industrial area in Kirti Nagar on their motorcycle when they noticed five men in a Swift Dzire car.

Suspicious of the late night movement, the constables intercepted the car thinking that they would return home after a routine check. But they had to face something completely different, as the two constables got involved in a deadly hand to hand combat with members of the infamous Mewati gang, which lasted thirty minutes.

The policemen were fired upon and bitten. Vijay Kumar had his hand crushed by a stone, before he and Sanjay managed to subdue one of the gang members, Irshad, who was then arrested. All of this took place in front of the residents of the area, most of who did not move a muscle and remained spectators of the violent melee.

"We were on our regular patrolling duty when we noticed the car with number plates from Haryana. I decided to pull the car over and do a routine check. They did not have the registration and license documents, so I asked them to get out of the car," said HC Vijay Kumar.

Kumar had noticed the peculiar Mewati accent of the five men and became cautious. But Irshad had already loaded several bullets into his country-made pistol.

Standing six-feet tall, Irshad towered the two policemen. He first lured them towards the boot space of the car and then whipped out his pistol and fired at them. The bullet, however, whizzed past Sandeep's hand.

"At that moment, all I could notice were the sparks from the bullet," said Sandeep.

Vijay Kumar and Irshad then started exchanging blows, while Sanjay tries to subdue the criminal. The other four gang members bolted to a safe place a few metres from the car and watched the melee unfold.

Vijay managed to throw Irshad to the ground and pounced on him. When his fingers slipped into Irshad's mouth, the latter Irshad bit them. Irshad then took a stone and crushed Vijay's hand.

Seeing that he had the upper hand, Irshad called out to his associates to take the cops on.

Seeing the four gang members dashing towards them, Vijay whipped out his pistol and pointed it at the gang. Out of fear, the four ran back and soon fled the spot.

In the meantime, two men watching the chaos unfold from afar decided to help the cops subdue Irshad, who then began banging his head into a nearby tree.

"He was just banging his head and blood gushed from his forehead, after which he cooled down. Many people were watching, but nobody helped," said Karthik, one of the men who helped the cops.

Police believe that the accused were on their way to steal high-end cars and trucks for sale in Haryana.

"We have found tools used to break into cars. The other members have been

identified and will be arrested. Irshad has been involved in 16 cases of Dacoity in Haryana," said DCP (West), Vijay Kumar.