Thane: A chase in the narrow and crowded lanes of Mumbra’s Shil Daighar area in the early hours of Saturday saw two civilians suffer gunshot injuries after a fleeing suspect allegedly opened fire indiscriminately while trying to escape from a police team.Mumbra police later arrested the accused, identified as Shahabad alias Shambhu Qureshi (28), a resident of Mahape Road. Police said he was the prime suspect in a firing incident outside the Kausa residence of local businessman and social media influencer Nadeem Khan (45), popularly known as Baba Khan, barely an hour earlier.The preliminary probe showed Qureshi reached Khan’s residence around 5 am and allegedly fired two rounds at his parked car and another in the air. Soon after, Khan uploaded a video on social media challenging the unknown attackers to face him. He claimed to alert senior police officials about a possible attack, which he said went unheeded. Meanwhile, Mumbra police rushed to the spot and, based on intelligence inputs, identified Qureshi as the main suspect and tracked him to the Achari Galli area in the nearby Daighar area. Spotting the police closing in, Qureshi allegedly attempted to flee and opened fire at the team, unmindful of the crowd of onlookers that gathered. The police team comprising PSI Tejas Sawant, Anil Sonawane, constables Ankush Shinde, Aziz Tadvi and others, though, refrained from retaliatory firing to avoid endangering residents, said Subhash Burse, DCP, Zone 1, Thane. “During the chase, the accused fired a few rounds, injuring two” bystanders—Rahim Sayyed and Faroque Shaikh—who were rushed to a nearby hospital with gunshot wounds to their finger and stomach. Our teams overpowered Qureshi and took him into custody and recovered an unlicensed firearm and four magazines from his possession, said Anil Shinde, senior inspector at Mumbra police station. After the police team managed to pin him down, a few irate locals apparently charged at the accused following the firing, but the police teams managed to frisk him away in time.It is learned that Qureshi, a native of Delhi, migrated to Mumbra some time back and had an altercation with Khan recently. A few cases were reportedly registered agsinst him in Delhi. Police said they are yet to probe the motive behind Saturday’s attack and whether he was assisted by someone. A local court remanded him to police custody till March 11. Security was tightened outside Khan’s residence.
