CHANDIGARH: Two gunmen shot dead a cashier at a chemist’s shop in Chandigarh’s Sector 11 while rubbing elbows with customers on Saturday afternoon. Thirteen shots were fired in just two seconds at 45-year-old Janki Das, indicating the use of a sophisticated pistol.The brazen public killing – second in three months — has shaken the city and raised questions on police preparedness. Sector-11 police station and crime branch are barely 500 metres from the shop. There’s a police naka 100 metres from the scene of crime but the shooters managed to get away and are yet to be identified.The motive for the crime isn’t clear yet. Das was a resident of Dhanas in Chandigarh and a native of Rohru, Himachal Pradesh, where his wife recently won the gram panchayat election.The murder was captured on multiple CCTV cameras. Sector 11 market is a very busy area and no one gave any particular attention to the two shooters when they walked into the shop at 2.28pm. They wore surgical masks and caps and stood in front of the cashier for a few seconds, as if waiting for their turn. Other customers stood only a few inches away.
Around 15 seconds later, a shop CCTV camera captured them pulling out guns but it was below counter level and no one noticed. The cashier had his head turned away, doing his work, when one of them started shooting. Das collapsed on the floor and the other staff and customers scattered in panic.The shooters sprinted away. They were in and out of the shop in less than 25 seconds. Luckily no one else was hurt. Someone called 112.Police later found that the duo ran through the market area and to an accomplice who was waiting on a motorcycle on the road. He too wore a mask, and had a backpack slung over his shoulder. This motorcycle was found in a garden in Sector-3.Upon receiving the alert, SSP Sumer Partap Singh, SP-city K M Priyanka arrived at the crime scene with forensics experts. Das was taken to PGI, where he was declared dead.Police said the bike was stolen from Tarn Taran in Punjab and the registration number was fake. The SSP said 13 rounds were fired from the ‘automatic pistol’ but how many hit the victim will be ascertained in the post-mortem.From the probe so far, the shop owner had not received any threats of extortion, said the SSP, adding that police are investigating every angle, including personal enmity.A claim of responsibility was posted from the ID of a Facebook group set up in the name Goldy Dhillon. It threatened Lawrence Bishnoi and his gang, and warned that anyone who supports him would pay for it. However, police sources indicate the post may be fabricated.This is the second public killing in Chandigarh in three months after the March 18 murder of property dealer Chamanpreet Singh in the posh Sector 9 area. He was shot 12 times in the parking lot.
