Delhi Police recovers car in which gunman Shahrukh had fled; here's how he was caught

Shahrukh, the gunman in the maroon t-shirt who had become the face of the unruly mob during the Delhi riots, was arrested in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday. On Thursday, according to ANI sources, the Crime Branch recovered the car in which Shahrukh had fled on February 24.

Earlier on Wednesday, sources in Delhi Police had said investigations had revealed that Shahrukh initially kept roaming around in the national capital before slipping away to Punjab and Uttar Pradesh's Shamli from where he was arrested.

Shahrukh kept roaming in Delhi's Connaught Place

According to sources, on February 24, after unleashing a volley of bullets, Shahrukh went back home and claimed to have been petrified on seeing his photos flashing on the television screen. He then changed his clothes, drove to Hauz Khas and kept roaming around in the clubs there, he said. On February 25, even as Northeast Delhi burned thanks in no small part to the provocation from his end, Shahrukh kept roaming in Delhi's Connaught Place, parked his car in the parking area and slept in the vehicle itself.

On February 26, he drove to Punjab's Jalandhar and called up a friend there who refused to meet him having watched him on television. On February 27, 28 and 29 he remained in Uttar Pradesh's Shamli with one of his friends. On March 1, he left Shamli and kept wandering in buses in Punjab. On March 2, he returned to Shamli.

On March 3, Delhi Police Crime Branch arrested Shahrukh from Shamli bus stand. He has been sent to four-day police custody. During the investigation, Shahrukh revealed that the car he used belonged to his uncle's son. He had left a car in a garage in Haryana after it broke down.

'He had bought the pistol two years ago'

At a press briefing regarding the arrest, Additional CP Ajit Kumar Singla said that the police is yet to recover his pistol with which he fired three shots "in a fit of rage". The police also said that the man, identified as Shahrukh, told the interrogators that he had fired shots in a fit of rage after he saw stone pelting happening in the Jaffrabad-Maujpur area of northeast Delhi, which was one of the epicentres of the three-day riots over the Citizenship Amendment Act.

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"He had bought the pistol two years ago from a friend in Bihar," Singla said, adding that the police are investigating whether he has any links with any organisation and whether he had planned the firing. In a video that went viral last week, Shahrukh could be seen pointing his country-made pistol at the policeman on the Jaffrabad-Maujpur road. The incident was from 24 February when violence was at its peak in northeast Delhi.

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(With agency inputs)