Two snatchers on bike drag woman, 1 held after gunfight

Ghaziabad: Two men behind a series of snatching incidents in Vasundhara and nearby areas were chased down by cops on Thursday night and one of them was arrested after a gunfight.
Cops said the accused would mostly target unaccompanied elderly women, follow them on a bike — a red Apache that eventually gave them away — and swoop down to snatch chains or purses among other things.
ACP Indirapuram Swatantra Singh said on July 5, the two men — Shadab and Salman of Vijay Nagar — had dragged a 50-year-old woman, Savita Singh, for a few metres as they tried to snatch a gold chain she was wearing in the busy Vasundhara Sector 3 market. The woman was returning home after purchasing vegetables at the time.
A complaint was later submitted by her son at Indirapuram police station under section 309 (4) (punishment for robbery) of BNS.
“The snatching incident was captured by a CCTV camera installed in the market. We assessed the footage and spotted the accused on a red Apache. On Thursday, we got a tip-off that the two men might be headed towards Indirapuram again. Our teams flagged down the accused on spotting their Apache, but they took a sharp turn and tried to flee. We chased them and arrested Shadab a few metres ahead and seize the bike. But Salman managed to slip away,” the ACP said. During interrogation, Shadab apparently told cops that they would carry a country-made gun during the robberies.
He agreed to accompany cops to the spot near the Hindon canal where they had hidden the firearm. “Once at the spot, he turned the gun on the cops and fired a few shots. He was shot in the right leg during a retaliatory firing,” the ACP said.
On Friday, Shadab was sent to judicial custody by a local court. Cops are yet to nab Salman or trace the gold chain they had stolen earlier this month.