Delhi cop killed: driver of car that rammed cop arrested | Latest News Delhi

A day after a 30-year-old Delhi police officer was killed in a road incident that stunned the national capital, officers said on Monday they had arrested both occupants of the car that rammed the victim’s motorcycle, dragged him 10 meters and crushed him. early Sunday in a parked car in Nangloi.

However, several senior police officers ruled out that the ‘booze mafia’ played a role in the murder, adding that the two suspects were not involved in smuggling. However, they are investigating the case as a murder and are trying to determine whether officer Sandeep Malik and the suspects had a history of enmity.

The driver of the car, 39-year-old Dharmendra Gulia, was previously fined for public drinking in 2018 and 2019, officers said.

“We are interrogating Gulia to find out whether he previously had 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 drunk and did not know the person on the motorcycle was a police officer as he was in plain clothes,” said an officer who asked not to be named to be mentioned.

“They are also being questioned to determine whether the officer caught them drinking in a public place and reprimanded them,” said a senior officer, requesting anonymity.

Gulia was arrested on Monday evening from the Karnal bypass in a bus 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 is a case of road rage because Gulia was driving recklessly and Constable Malik signaled him to slow down. Gulia deliberately rammed his car into Constable Malik’s motorcycle from behind, dragged him along with the bike and crashed him into a parked car,” said Jatin Narwal, Joint Commissioner of Police (Western Range).

Malik was declared dead at a hospital in Paschim Vihar hours after the incident.

Police said Malik, a plainclothes police officer, was conducting night patrols around Railway Station Road in Veena Enclave due to increasing thefts in the area. Two more police officers from Ranhola police station, who lived with him and were also in plain clothes, accompanied him on another motorcycle.

A second senior police officer, who asked not to be named, said one of the officers accompanying the victim mistook the car’s occupants for a bootlegger.

The officer had been approached by associates of Neeraj Jangra, a local liquor smuggler, to help him in the liquor business while he was posted at Nangloi police station, he told investigators.

“The two officers saw the occupants of the car when they rushed to help Malik. One of the police officers mistook the driver for Jangra and made the same claim to the emergency worker, who was the first to reach the scene. This information was also mentioned in the first police report. However, when we checked the driver’s mobile phone, which we found in the car, we were able to identify him as Dharmendra Gulia. Sitto also confirmed this,” the second officer said.

Police said Gulia fled the city and borrowed another car to reach Himachal Pradesh after the incident. He was followed to Sirmaur district, where a relative of Gulia was staying.

“Gulia felt that he was being chased by our teams. He left the car and boarded a bus for Delhi. We learned about his change in plan. Our teams have started checking buses coming to Delhi from Himachal Pradesh. He was caught while sitting in a bus near Karnal bypass,” the first officer said.

According to police, Gulia was dealing in water purifiers, buying purification kits from Punjab and selling them in Delhi. He also made money by renting out his property. Sitto had a grocery store in his residential neighborhood, they said.