A Delhi Police constable was killed and two others seriously injured when assailants opened fire inside a courtroom in east Delhi's Karkardooma Court on Wednesday, following which four youths have been detained.
Metropolitan Magistrate Sunil Gupta also had a close shave as one of the bullets scraped past his chair and hit the wall behind, police said.
The deceased constable, identified as Ram Kumar, was hit by four bullets. He was posted at Delhi police’s third battalion, which is entrusted with the transport of undertrials between courts and prisons.
The Delhi government has announced a compensation of Rs 1 crore for the family of the deceased policeman.
The injured persons included undertrial Irfan alias Chhaini Pehalwan, a history-sheeter who was being escorted, and the 'naib court', the constable deployed at court number 73 in the Karkardooma court premises, where the incident took place at around 11 am, said a police official.
Both Irfan and the constable sustained two bullet injuries each and were admitted to a hospital, where Kumar was declared brought dead, said the official.
The assailants, of which some are suspected to be minors, fired around ten rounds.
The four youths detained belong to northeast Delhi’s Seelampur and nearby areas.
From their questioning, it has emerged that Irfan, who has numerous cases registered against him at different districts of the national capital, had allegedly killed a member of the attackers' gang in south Delhi.
The police is also looking for another youth who is believed to be a co-accused and some lawyers had seen him videographing the firing inside the courtroom, said police.
"A case of murder has been registered and several teams are working on it. Four persons have been detained at the police post inside the court premises and they are being questioned," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) B S Gurjar.
The police is also investigating as to how the assailants managed to get inside the court with arms dodging layers of security, said an official.
The assailants were waiting for the undertrial to arrive before they opened fire. They tried to escape but the lawyers and security personnel inside the court held them and handed them over to the police team which was rushed there following a control room call, police said.
