Eatery owner murder: One arrested in Delhi

New Delhi, May 27: Police on Thursday arrested a 32-year- old man who allegedly shot dead an eatery owner in southeast Delhi's Lajpat Nagar area earlier this week.

Mukesh is the one who had allegedly fired at 60-year-old Vasudeo, the owner of the eatery in Lajpat Nagar 3, after a dispute over payment of bill, a senior police official said.

While Mukesh was arrested from Pilanji village in South Delhi and the car in which he and his friends had fled after the incident was recovered, three teams have been formed to track down the other three accused persons involved in the case.

Police is now looking for the weapon of offence, the official said. Yesterday, three persons were detained for questioning in connection with the case after the police teams conducted raids at their hideouts in Delhi-NCR.

Vasudeo alias Pappu was allegedly shot at in his eatery around 10.15 PM on Monday in presence of several other customers, including two policemen who were not on duty. He died in the wee hours Tuesday.

The victim's wife had passed away earlier this month and he is survived by his 16-year-old adopted son.

Being chased by the eatery staff, the accused fled from the spot taking advantage of darkness, as streetlights had stopped functioning in the area after the dust storm that evening, and dodging the two police officials deployed in a picket near the eatery.

The images of the assailants could not be captured by any of the CCTV cameras in the neighbourhood, largely because of the darkness. However, they were identified with the help of the registration number of the car in which they had fled, police said.

The investigators managed to take note of the car's registration number, except for two digits in the last four-digit part. Police then acquired a list from Uttar Pradesh Transport Department (as the car had a UP registration number) with details on the same and shortlisted the car, the official added.

PTI