NEW DELHI: At 8 pm on a busy Saturday evening, a man who was in the middle of a meal at a popular Central Delhi restaurant, Sagar Ratna, found himself being apprehended by two men.
In the next few minutes, four rounds of bullets rang out in the eatery. There were around 10 people in the eatery and most of them rushed out when the gunfight began.
It would turn out that the man who was shot was claimed by the police as a repeat offender with over 100 cases against him, including some of attempted murder. The men who went upto him were cops in plain clothes.
The police has today released CCTV footage from the eatery to counter allegations that it killed the man, Manoj Vashishtha, in cold blood - a charge levelled by his family.
Delhi Police Chief BS Bassi said today that a special team will investigate the encounter, a decision taken by Home Minister Rajnath Singh after meeting with the victim's relatives.
Mr Bassi claims that his officers were tipped off that the victim was at the restaurant. When they entered and tried to arrest Mr Vashishtha, he allegedly pulled out a gun and opened fire. The policeman who shot Mr Vashishtha in the head has provided this account in a written statement for the case: "I gently trapped the shoulder of the accused from behind and told him to get up disclosing that I was a Police Officer... in no time the accused whipped his right hand towards his waist and with a violent shake, managed to pull out a shiny pistol."
He was then taken to a nearby hospital where he was declared dead on arrival.