Noida cop shot dead during Ghaziabad raid to arrest gangster

Ghaziabad: A 27-year-old UP Police constable was shot dead during a raid at Nahal village on Sunday night to arrest a gangster wanted in connection with more than two dozen cases of vehicle theft.Saurabh Kumar Deshwal, who was part of a seven-member Noida police team that had gone there around 11pm to arrest Qadir, was shot in the head as the gangster's brother and accomplices tried to prevent the cops from taking him away. They pelted the police car with stones and fired at the cops to free Qadir. One of the bullets hit Saurabh, who was on a bike, in the head.

The police team managed to break through the ambush with Qadir after a 30-minute operation.

Saurabh was taken to Yashoda Hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival. Sonit Kumar, another constable who was injured by a stone aimed at his head, is undergoing treatment.

Sources said the team from Noida's Phase 3 police station – three sub-inspectors and four constables – reached Nahal in Masuri after they received a tip-off that Qadir was there. The latest case against the 24-year-old gangster was filed in connection with a music system theft from inside a Hyundai Verna in Sector 73 earlier this month.

All in plainclothes, the cops parked their vehicle — an Ertiga bearing a private number — around 50 metres outside Nahal. Their informer was with them, who advised them to use bikes in the narrow lanes of Nahal.

"We were accompanied by our informer, who pointed at Qadir. Wearing a sky blue T-shirt and a pair of grey tracks, he was talking to a few villagers when we reached there. We showed him our IDs and told Qadir to accompany us without causing any trouble.

As we started walking him away, he shouted at the top of his voice, seeking help from his accomplices to get him freed," said Sachin Rathi, who was leading the police team.

By the time the cops had reached the spot where the Ertiga was parked, the gangster's brother Aadil and a few others began throwing stones at them. "They became aggressive all of a sudden and threatened to kill and bury us in the village itself if we took Qadir with us," Rathi said.

Gunfire punctuated the stone-pelting.

The police team retaliated by firing, forcing the group of attackers to flee. But by then, Saurabh was hit. Saurabh, Sonit and another cop were on a bike.A heavily bleeding Saurabh and Qadir were put in the same Ertiga as the police team rushed out of Nahal. While one team took Saurabh and Sonit to hospital, another took Qadir to Masuri police station, which has jurisdictional control over Nahal village.

Amid questions on the police team going there without sufficient backup and whether their threat assessment went wrong – with the gangster's aides resorting to an armed retaliation – Ghaziabad police pointed out they were not kept in the loop. Police commissioner J Ravinder Goud said the Noida police team had not given any prior information, and had it done so, cops from Ghaziabad would have reinforced the raiding team.

"Then perhaps this incident would not have taken place," Goud said. Ghaziabad DCP (rural) Surendra Nath Tiwari said the Noida cops violated protocol by not keeping the local police station in the loop. "Around 11.45pm, we got information that a Noida police constable had been shot and taken to Yashoda Hospital for emergency treatment. When our cops reached the hospital, we came to know that the constable had died. Another, we were told, was undergoing treatment," Tiwari said.A senior Noida police officer, however, said Ghaziabad cops had been verbally informed. The officer pointed out there is no SOP in place for emergency cases such as the Sunday night raid and procedure allows police teams to be deployed without informing those who hold the jurisdiction of the site. "We got a tipoff about the accused's movements in Nahal village, following which two teams were formed. One of the teams had verbally informed the local chowki as the law allows an arrest to be made without completing documentation in emergency cases," the officer said.

The only failure, Noida police sources conceded, was the informer not giving accurate information of the risk factor in the area. The team, the sources said, had not predicted that there would be a backlash of this magnitude.An FIR was registered at Masuri police station against Qadir – against whom there's already a Gangsters Act case – his brother Aadil and unknown persons under BNS sections 103 (murder), 109 (attempt to murder), 50 (abetment if person abetted does act with different intention from that of abettor), 61 (2) (criminal conspiracy), 121 (2) (voluntarily causing grievous hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 125 (act endangering life or personal safety for others), among others.On Monday morning, after a search operation for those behind the attack on the Noida police team and the murder of Saurabh, Nanhu and Abdul Salam, who police said were part of the group in Nahal that had attacked them with stone and fired the shots, were arrested afterLipi Nagayach, ACP (Masuri), said a police team was checking vehicles headed for the Delhi-Meerut Expressway when they spotted the duo on a motorcycle and asked them to stop.

Instead, they turned their bike around and attempted to flee. "The police team gave them a chase when their bike skidded off the road. As they ran towards the forest, they fired at the cops, prompting them to retaliate. Both were shot in the legs in crossfire," she added.

This is not the first instance of Noida cops carrying out an operation in Ghaziabad without informing the local police.On Nov 26, 2023, a Noida police team that had conducted a raid in Masuri in connection with a road rage incident came under attack from villagers. The attackers snatched a pistol from the head constable when he tried to drive away and vandalised his car. Four policemen were injured and had to be admitted to hospital for treatment.