A day after a 30-year-old Delhi Police constable was killed in a road rage incident that stunned the national capital, officers on Monday said they arrested both occupants of the car that rammed the victim’s motorbike, dragged him for 10 metres and smashed him into a parked car in Nangloi early on Sunday.
The car in shambles after the incident late Sunday night. (Arvind Yadav/HT)
Multiple senior police officers, however, ruled out that the “liquor mafia” had any role to play in the murder, adding that the two accused were not involved in bootlegging. They are, however, investigating the case as a murder and trying to ascertain if constable Sandeep Malik and the suspects had a history of animosity.
The driver of the car, 39-year-old Dharmendra Gulia, was previously fined in 2018 and 2019 for public drinking, officers said.
“We are interrogating Gulia to find out if he had an earlier enmity with constable Malik, and killed him as part of a conspiracy. Gulia and the other arrested man, 25-year-old Rajnish alias Sitto, claim they were inebriated and did not know the person on the motorbike was a policeman since he was in plainclothes,” said an officer who asked not to be named.
How he was caught?
“They are also being interrogated to ascertain if the constable caught them drinking at a public place and reprimanded them,” a senior officer, requesting anonymity, said.
Gulia was arrested on Monday evening from Karnal bypass in a bus that was heading from Himachal Pradesh to Delhi. Sitto was caught in Model Town on Sunday evening.
Both are residents of Veena Enclave in Nangloi, where the incident took place.
“It’s a case of road rage because Gulia was driving recklessly and constable Malik gestured to him to slow down. Gulia intentionally rammed his car into constable Malik’s motorbike from behind, dragged him along with the bike and smashed him into a parked car,” joint commissioner of police (western range) Jatin Narwal said.
Malik was declared dead at a hospital in Paschim Vihar hours after the incident.
Police said Malik, a beat officer, was on night patrol duty in plainclothes around Railway Station Road in Veena Enclave due to increasing thefts in the area. Two more policemen from Ranhola police station who lived with him and were also in plainclothes were accompanying him on another motorbike.
A second senior police person, who did not want to be named, said one of the officers accompanying the victim mistook the occupants of the car for a bootlegger.
The officer had been approached by associates of Neeraj Jangra, a local bootlegger, to help him in the liquor trade while he was posted in Nangloi police station, he told investigators.
“The two officers spotted the occupants of the car when they rushed to help Malik. One of the policemen mistook the driver for Jangra and made the same claim before the emergency officer, who was the first to reach the crime scene. This information was mentioned in the initial police report as well. However, when we checked the driver’s cellphone, which we found in the car, we were able to identify him as Dharmendra Gulia. Sitto confirmed this as well,” the second officer said.
Police said Gulia fled the city and borrowed another car to reach Himachal Pradesh, following the incident, and he was tracked to Sirmaur district, where a relative of Gulia stayed.
“Gulia sensed that he was being chased by our teams. He left the car and boarded a bus for Delhi. We learnt about his change in plan. Our teams started checking buses coming to Delhi from Himachal Pradesh. He was caught travelling in a bus near Karnal bypass,” the first officer said.
Police said Gulia dealt in water purifiers, purchasing purifier sets from Punjab and selling them in Delhi. He also earned money by renting out his property. Sitto owned a grocery shop in his residential neighbourhood, they said.
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