GHAZIABAD: A law student was arrested in connection with the celebratory firing that led to the death of a two-year-old boy watching a wedding procession pass by in the city last week.
Another of the groom’s friends, Hitesh alias Happy Singh is a 25-year-old second-year student who lives in Gurgaon’s DLF Phase 3.
He is the second person to be nabbed in connection with the fatal firing incident. His friend Deepanshu, a lawyer practising at Gurgaon district court, was arrested on Feb 19.
Deepanshu and Happy, police said, were perched on the main buggy carrying the groom and fired shots in the air as the wedding procession made its way through Aghapur village in Noida Sector 41.
The boy who died, Ansh, was hit by one of the bullets fired into the air as he watched the baraat from the third-floor balcony of his house overlooking the road in Theeke Wali Gali. The boy was rushed to Prayag Hospital, about 2km away, but bled to death.
Additional DCP (Noida) Sumit Kumar Shukla said Happy was arrested from Noida and carried an illegal pistol, one that was apparently used by him during the wedding procession.
Three police teams had been conducting searches in Gurgaon, Delhi, Noida and other possible hideouts for Happy, who managed to evade arrest for nearly 7 days. “Happy kept changing his location constantly. He also switched off his mobile phone. A probe is on to determine if the bullet, which had pierced the child’s head, was fired by Deepanshu or Happy,” Shukla said. The pistols recovered from the two men have been sent for forensic analysis.
Deepanshu had earlier told cops that he didn’t remember most of the details of the Feb 16 evening as he was drunk at the time but claimed to have bought a gun to “commemorate” his friend’s wedding and flaunt it as a show of power.
Ansh’s father, Vikas Sharma, told TOI that he had shifted to Noida barely 35 days before the incident from Sambhal in the hope of giving a better life to his two children.