NEW DELHI, November 15: A wanted criminal was killed and his associate injured in a west Patel Nagar shootout this afternoon. The injured man has been arrested while two others escaped. Two guards and an 18-year-old youth sustained bullet wounds during the incident.The four masked men had robbed a Paras Dairy collection centre near Satyam cinema of Rs 16 lakh at gun-point and got trapped when their car hit a dead end in a nearby DTC colony. When a constable gave chase, they opened fire and he retaliated. Birju, who was wearing a bullet-proof jacket, was shot between the eyes and died on the spot. Birju had a reward of Rs 50,000 on his head. He was wanted in 52 criminal cases, including a bank dacoity in Jaipur. The arrested man has been identified as Ashok Kumar and the two who escaped are yet to be identified.After other colleagues of constable Jagdish Prasad reached the spot, they recovered the stolen money, four pistols, eight fake number plates and two helmets from the car, which was reportedly stolen for the robbery.Eyewitnesses said the four masked men were seen in white Maruti car near the collection centre at around 3.45 pm. They barged into the complex and zeroed in on the money collection counter. Here, they snatched a bag containing around Rs 16 lakh at gun-point.When guards Bhagwan Singh and Raj Bahadur blocked their way, the robbers opened fire and injured both. This alerted constable Jagdish Prasad who was on the duty nearby. He ran towards the milk complex but by that time the robbers had got back into their car and began driving towards the Shadipur depot in west Delhi.The constable with his rifle sprinted behind the car which drove through the sole entrance of the DTC Colony. The constable got the entrance blocked by a DTC bus from the adjoining Shadipur Depot. The commotion alerted some colony youths who were playing cricket in the park. They too joined the chase.The gangsters circled the unfamiliar roads twice looking for an exit. By that time, the chasers started pelting them with stones and managed to smash the rear window with a cricket bat.The gangsters parked the car near a low wall, seeing it an opportunity to escape. One of the chasers, 18-year-old Praveen, grabbed at one of them and was shot at in the process. The four jumped over the wall and commandeered a parked Tata Sumo at gun-point.The constable too jumped the wall and chased them in an autorickshaw and later switched to a motorcycle. The culprits reached a dead end, where they got off and started firing at the constable. He returned the fire catching Birju between the eyes who died at the spot. The injured man, Ashok Kumar, has been admitted to RML.
