Criminal wanted in GTB hospital shooting nabbed

The Delhi Police special cell, in a joint operation with the special task force (STF) of Uttar Pradesh Police, has arrested two key members of the Hashim Baba gang, including 18-year-old Anas Khan who was the prime suspect in July’s GTB Hospital shooting in which a patient was killed in a case of mistaken identity, officers part of the teams said.
Khan and Asad Ameen both residents of Chauhan Bangar near Jafarabad in northeast Delhi, were arrested following an exchange of fire in UP’s Muzaffarnagar in the early hours of Thursday, the officers said.
The arrests, especially Khan’s, comes amid the Delhi Police’s probe to arrest the main shooters in the recent murder of a 35-year-old man in Greater Kailash-1. Investigation so far has revealed the joint involvement of the Hashim Baba and Lawrence Bishnoi gangs in the shooting. While police were also yet to find the exact motive behind the killing, they said that Nadir Shah was likely killed over extortion money.
Police said that they will now interrogate Khan in the murder of Shah outside his gym in the south Delhi neighbourhood last week on Thursday.
“As gangster Hashim Baba is lodged in Delhi’s Mandoli jail and Anas had been carrying out killings, including that of the members of their rival gang, on his behalf, we suspected that Hashim may have tasked Anas to execute Shah’s murder by arranging logistics and shooters. Interrogation of Anas could help us crack the entire conspiracy and the exact motive behind Shah’s murder,” said one of the officers, adding that Anas was looking after the gang’s other illegal activities such as demanding and collecting extortion or protection money from businessmen in the city.
Special commissioner of police (special cell) RP Upadhyay said that they received information on Wednesday about movement of a member of the Hashim Baba gang in and around Ghaziabad and Delhi along with his associate. After confirmation, a team was dispatched to western UP and STF (Meerut) was also informed. The police learnt about the suspects’ movement on Delhi-Haridwar highway in a Kia Seltos and started following them. They then intercepted the car near Bhainsi village in Khatauli with the help of the local police, said Upadhyay.
“The suspects were surrounded and were asked to surrender. But they came out of the car and opened fire at the police. The team members fired four bullets in retaliatory firing. Both suspects suffered one bullet each in their leg and were injured. They were arrested and admitted to a nearby government hospital. The local police have registered a case in connection with the shootout and they are probing it further,” added Upadhyay.
A senior special cell officer said while Khan was involved in at least 11 cases, including three murders and four attempted murders, Ameen was involved in three crimes.
Khan was also wanted after he, along with four members of the Hashim Baba gang, killed a 32-year-old patient in the afternoon of July 14 at GTB hospital, triggering panic inside the crowded hospital. The investigation showed that the assailants’ actual target was a rival gang member who was admitted in the same ward as the victim.