‘Dhoom'-style pursuit across South Delhi: How a constable caught 3 thieves in a 7-km, 35-minute chase

Indian Express

7 days ago

On August 1, around 4 am, Constable Kartar Singh was patrolling in South Delhi's Malviya Nagar when he spotted three men on a motorcycle. They wore small turbans, carried a backpack, and had their faces covered.
Singh immediately suspected they could be the criminals that Station House Officer (SHO) Vinay Yadav had recently warned the Malviya Nagar police station about. The trio was accused of carrying out multiple burglaries in the area. During briefings, Yadav had described the suspects and their attire in detail.
The constable recalled both the SHO's words and the surveillance footage shown during the briefings. Like many of his colleagues, Singh was actively on the lookout for the trio during his night patrol.
The night had already been eventful. Earlier, Singh and his patrolling partner Constable Mainpal had tried to catch a 'bad character' of the area, but he gave them the slip.
Around 3 am, the motorcycle they were patrolling on started giving trouble. Singh decided to replace it with another one from the old Malviya Nagar police station parking. He dropped his colleague midway, as Mainpal needed to use the washroom.
It was on his way back, near Shivalik road, that Singh — now on an Apache — spotted the three men.
And like a scene straight out of the Bollywood action flick Dhoom, Singh gave chase — for 35 minutes across 7 km.
'When I spotted them, I tried to flag them down, but they sped off. They headed towards the Savitri Flyover, then the IIT Flyover, took a right turn, and moved towards Aurobindo Marg, eventually reaching near Hauz Khas and tried to enter Khel Gaon,' Singh said.
'Each time I got close, they either swung a rod at me or threw housebreaking tools to slow me down. I maintained a safe distance — I wasn't sure if they were armed.'
Just before entering Khel Gaon, the guard at the gate approached to question them, but they sped off in the opposite direction — with Singh still in pursuit.
By now, the chase was intensifying. The guard, sensing something was wrong, got on his own motorcycle and raced after them. However, as he got close, he too was attacked — the suspects swung rods at him just as they had with Singh.
'They kept weaving through lanes,' Singh said. 'When I saw guards along the route, I raised an alarm, shouting at them to block the exits and call the police. The accused didn't even slow down at speed breakers — they just kept going. That's when I realised they were desperate criminals who would go to any extent to escape. I knew the only way to stop them was to hit their motorcycle and force them to fall.'
Just as the trio turned into another lane, Singh accelerated and rammed his bike into theirs, causing them to fall.
As he got off his motorcycle to apprehend them, one of the suspects swung an iron rod at him — Singh's helmet took the blow, saving him. Another suspect lunged at him with a screwdriver. Singh then drew his pistol and fired a round in the air.
'But even that didn't stop them,' Singh recalled. 'They tried to escape on my motorcycle, but I managed to snatch the keys. They kept coming at me, and I knew I had to act to stop them. So I fired at one of the accused, aiming below the waist. The bullet hit him, and he collapsed. The other two froze, and, by then, the security guards I had alerted arrived.'
The man who had been shot was bleeding profusely, and Singh rushed him to a hospital.
'I lifted him onto a guard's bike and asked one of the guards to accompany me, just in case the accused tried to escape again or fell off,' Singh said. 'I left the other two accused with the guards, as a police team was on the way. We rushed straight to the hospital and got him admitted.'
Since his phone's battery was dead, he charged it at the hospital and informed his SHO of the events. It was only later that he realised his own arm was fractured.
Even though Singh had caught thieves in the past, he said this live chase has been the highlight of his career so far.
When Singh walked into the Malviya Nagar police station on Wednesday, his right arm in a cast and bruises on his neck and shoulders, his colleagues were effusive in their praise.
Police said the accused were identified as Sikander (30), Darshan Singh and Vijender.
SHO Yadav said they were involved in a series of burglary incidents in the area, prompting the entire police station, including him, to patrol the neighbourhood.
'The trio targeted houses that were shut and builder floors where the gate was left open. In one such incident, they even ended up attacking the guard who tried to stop them,' he said.
An old hand of the Special Staff, Yadav drew on his 18 years of expertise to identify the suspects. 'The accused would burgle a house, take away all the valuables they could, hide in a cheap budget hotel, and repeat the pattern in another area. After three-four days, they would return to the same neighbourhood to carry out another burglary. They always struck between 3 and 4 am, when most residents were fast asleep. The gang had carried out similar burglaries in other parts of Delhi as well,' the SHO said.
According to DCP (South) Ankit Chauhan, 'Sikander has 14 previous involvements of burglary and robbery. Darshan has six criminal cases against him, three of which are in Punjab.'
He added that the operation is an example of the courage, presence of mind, and commitment to duty exhibited by Constable Singh and the coordination with local security guards.
Sakshi Chand is working as an Assistant Editor with the Indian Express. She has over a decade of experience in covering crime, prisons, traffic and human interest stories. She has also covered the communal clashes in Kasganj, Aligarh, Trilokpuri riots as well as the North-East Delhi riots. Apart from being a journalist, she is also a National level basketball player and a coach. Before joining the Indian Express, she was working for The Times of India. ... Read More