Following the shooting of a 26-year-old man at a Burger King in West Delhi’s Rajouri Garden on June 18, police investigations have uncovered that the two shooters subsequently visited Haridwar, Manali, and Maharashtra. This conclusion was based on a bus ticket and photographs found on a pen drive with one of the accused.
The two men, among three, were killed in a joint operation by the Delhi Police Crime Branch and the Haryana Police Special Task Force (STF) in Kharkhoda, Sonipat, last week. All three — Ashish alias Lalu (24), Sunny Kharar (23), and Vicky Ridhana (23) — were affiliated with the Himanshu Bhau gang.
After the shootout, the Haryana STF discovered a wallet belonging to one of the men. It contained two UP roadways bus tickets from Agra to Mathura and then to Palwal, purchased on July 11, and a pen drive with photos from their trips to the Jyotirlingas in Maharashtra earlier in the month, it was reported.
A source from the Haryana STF told The Indian Express that during an inspection of the crime scene and the car of the accused, they found a brown wallet. “In it, we found a bus ticket from Bijligahr to Mathura for Rs 98. We found another ticket, showing they caught another bus to Palwal. We also found a pen drive with photos taken during their trips to different places… these were saved in the pen drive as they always destroyed their phones. From July 5-9, as per their photo collection, they were hiding in Maharashtra and visiting the Jyotirlingas,” the source said.
Multiple Delhi Police teams worked to apprehend Ashish and Vicky, involved in the Burger King shooting.
“A team from the Crime Branch’s New Delhi Range (NDR) led by Inspector Rampal and ACP Umesh Barthwal also visited the crime scene and procured dump data — mass collection of mobile phone data — from the food outlet. Using technical surveillance, they traced a phone number and scanned the IP address. They found that Ashish was talking to Bhau’s associate, Sahil — currently hiding in the US — on the Signal app at the time of the crime. The attackers were last seen on a motorbike near Tilak Nagar police station,” a source said.
Further investigations revealed that the attackers later traveled to Kashmere Gate and boarded a roadways bus for Haridwar; there, they took a dip in the Ganga.
“They destroyed their phones before heading to Manali where they procured new phones. Their modus operandi was clear — they used phones without a SIM card and accessed the internet after requesting auto drivers and waiters to share their hotspot with them,” the source said.
A source added that the NDR team also visited a Mahindra automobile dealership in Sonipat where Ashish and Vicky, along with Sunny, allegedly opened fire in an attempt to extort Rs 5 crore. “On scanning CCTV footage, they spotted Vicky talking on the phone. It was found that he had asked a passerby to share their hotspot. This time, Vicky was talking with Sahil on another app called Zangi,” the source said, adding that the investigation also revealed Bhau allegedly instructed them to eliminate three people in Haryana who refused to pay him protection money.