NEW DELHI: In what probably seemed like a scene lifted from a Bollywood film, a team of Delhi Police chasing two suspected robbers on a motorcycle in the early hours of Thursday was forced to crash their two-wheeler in a bid to stop the criminals.
However, as both the motorcycles fell, the criminals took out pistols and started firing at the police personnel. The cops too retaliated resulting in an encounter during which both the alleged criminals sustained bullet injuries.
Sharing more details, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Vichitra Veer said multiple incidents of robberies were reported in the last few days at different police stations of the West district.
"In most of the robberies, gold ornaments were taken away by two bikers by using force or by putting the complainant in fear of bodily harm with a dagger. These incidents were being reported in the morning hours and late at night," the DCP said.
Seeing the gravity of such repeated incidents of robberies, multiple teams of the police stations and Operations Unit were put on the task of nabbing them.
"Spotters were put at different vulnerable places and probable escape routes, and police personnel in civil clothes were deployed on bikes to follow, stop and check suspicious bikes," the officer said.
As the cops were thoroughly patrolling in the district, they spotted one such bike around 8 to 8:30 am today in the Punjabi Bagh area and began chasing it while parallelly alerting the other teams of nearby police stations.
"The chasing police team asked the bikers to stop but they began fleeing from there. Eventually, in a bid to stop them, the policemen hit their motorcycle into the criminals' bike and both fell down," the DCP said.
"The police retaliated and opened fire in self-defence, in which both the suspects sustained bullet injuries. The other police teams were called on the spot and the injured were taken to the hospital," the officer said.
Both the injured, identified as Vikas and Ramesh, have during preliminary questioning confessed to their involvement in criminal cases in the past but are subject to verification.