NEW DELHI: A Delhi Police commando keeping watch on the Prime Ministers route at the Akbar Road-Janpath roundabout opened fire on three scooter-borne persons after their vehicle shot past the police barricade and came on to the “PMs route” and injured two of them.
The injured were admitted to the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and are now out of danger. The third man is being questioned by the police and intelligence personnel.
The unprecedented incident took place around 9:30p.m.on Nov.13 minutes before the Prime Ministers convoy left the Hyderabad house for 7 Race Course Road Narsimha Raos residence The police had by then closed all vehicular and pedestrian movement at Motilal Nehru Marg and Janpath ends of the roundabout keeping open only the Akbar Road stretch from where Rao was scheduled to pass through.
The police spotted the scooter after it broke through the traffic cordon at Janpath and came on the central verge. According to the Additional Deputy Commissioner on Police (New Delhi) D.K.Bhatt “The scooter was coming from the Claridges Hotel side A traffic policeman signaled them to stop but the driver drove the vehicle right over him injuring the policeman in the leg. At Akbar Road crossing another attempt was made to stop the scooter. The commando (Yogesh) at first warned the driver to stop but when he did not open fire from his SAF Carbine.”
The commando fired five rounds from the carbine four which hit the two pillion riders. The third man on the vehicle the driver emerged unhurt.
The injured were rushed to RML hospital and though they were still in the emergency ward they had been declared out of danger. Of the injured 50-year-old Ramesh Ahuja the rearmost person received three bullets in upper thigh wrist and stomach Jassa Ram Mina (22) who was sandwiched between driver Jasbir Singh and Ramesh Ahuja got shot in the hip. Jasbir (45) has been arrested. He was taken to the Tughlak Road police station lock-up immediately after the incident and grilled by sleuths from Intelligence Bureau (IB) Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
Twenty-four hours after the incident he was still being interrogated through apart from the discovery that all the three were dead drunk when they broke through the barricade the grilling could yield nothing against either Jasbir or his companions by way of past criminal record.
Jasbir Singh a resident of Janakpuri runs a motor parts business at Kashmiri Gate. Ramesh Ahuja is a resident of Rajinder Nagar and works at the Yusaf Saral branch of the UCO Bank. The third man Jassa Ram is a “sais” (stable hand) at the Delhi Race Course. He is a native of Pali district in Rajasthan.
The three had spent the day on Friday at the races and thereafter had a long drinking session Bhatt said.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 27, 1992
