New Delhi: A 45-year-old auto-lifter was killed and another arrested during a shootout between a gang of inter-state auto-lifters and the police in east Delhi’s Vivek Vihar early on Tuesday, the police said.
The police said that the injured man was rushed to Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital where he was declared brought dead. The deceased has been identified as Noor Mohammad of Jaipur, while the arrested man has been identified as Ravi alias Kuldeep, who is also from Jaipur. However, the police has not revealed the identity of the absconding auto-lifters.
DCP (Shahdara) Nupur Prasad said the man, who died in the shootout, was trying to escape in a stolen white Fortuner SUV when he was hit. She said a third member of the gang fired at the police and fled in a white Maruti Suzuki Brezza car.
The DCP said that the Vivek Vihar police was contacted on Monday morning by the police of west Delhi’s Mianwali Nagar to inform them about a stolen Fortuner, which was traced in Jhilmil area near Vivek Vihar through its GPS.
“We located the SUV and found it parked in the backside of the ESI Hospital,” she said.
“The vehicle’s original registration plate was replaced with a fake one. Seven policemen were positioned in plain clothes to keep a watch on persons coming there to take the vehicle away,” Ms Prasad said.
Three men arrived at the spot in a Brezza at 3am and two of them walked towards the Fortuner SUV. One of them sat on the driver’s seat, while another got inside from the front passenger’s side door when the cops arrested him.
Within no time, the driver revved up the car and escaped towards Yamuna Sports Complex, but lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a boundary wall. The Fortuner driver even tried to run the SUV over the cops in an attempt to rescue his associate and flee.
