Bike-borne men shoot at four in car,flee with Rs 57 lakh

Puneet Bansal (31),the manager,was in his car with Jagmohan (31),Jitender (22) and Vinod Kumar — all employees at the petrol pump — and was headed to the Canara Bank branch to deposit the petrol pump’s revenue.

According to police,the men left Dilshad Garden petrol pump around 10 am with two bags of cash. As their car reached the ITI underpass,a blue Pulsar tried to overtake them. “After overtaking the car,one of the bikers pulled out his pistol and asked the driver to stop. As the driver tried to accelerate,the assailants stopped the bike in front of the car and opened fire. They then took the cash and fled,leaving the bike behind,” a senior police officer said.

Police said two more people,reportedly aides of the assailants,were waiting on motorbikes on the adjacent carriageway of the underpass. The assailants jumped over the median to the other side of the road,sat on bikes and sped towards Dilshad Garden. “Eyewitnesses tried to hurl stones at the assailants,but they managed to flee with the money,” police said.

Jagmohan,the driver who suffered a bullet injury in his chest,managed to get inside the car and drive for another 50 metres before collapsing. “He lost control and rammed the car into a roadside cart before falling unconscious,” an officer said. A passerby made a PCR call and the victims were rushed to hospital.

The police have registered a case of voluntarily causing hurt while committing robbery,robbery with attempt to cause death and Arms Act against the assailants.

Police said they suspected an insider’s involvement. “The robbers knew that the petrol pump employees would be carrying two days earnings to the bank,as it was a bank holiday on Friday for Janmashtami. We are now looking at CCTV footage of the petrol pump to ascertain if the assailants were at the petrol pump,waiting for the car to leave. This may help us identify them. We are also questioning the staff at the petrol pump,” the officer said.