Police Told Court it Had No Case Against Him. So Why Was Manoj Vashishtha Shot?

New Delhi:  Just 10 days before he was shot dead by a cop in popular restaurant Sagar Ratna, the Delhi Police told a court that it had no case against Manoj Vashishtha, which led to the 42 year-old being told there was no grounds for his arrest -he had applied for anticipatory bail.

After he was shot in the head  over the weekend, the Delhi Police said Mr Vashishtha, who worked as a businessman in the capital, was wanted for several criminal cases of cheating and at least one of attempted murder.

Its two blatantly different accounts of Mr Vashishtha’s status have amplified the allegations that the Delhi Police killed a man in cold blood.  Police sources offer this explanation – that the cases against Mr Vashishtha were being handled by the intelligence unit whose investigations are, for the most part, classified;  in the absence of that information, another  branch of the police force incorrectly said in court that it had no reason to seek Mr Vashishtha’s arrest.



 

Mr Vashishtha’s widow, Priyanka, met with Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday, seeking a detailed investigation into how her husband was shot. A special police team has been created and tasked with that assignment.

 

In a statement to the police, the officer who killed Mr Vashishtha said that he  opened fire after Mr Vashishtha reached for his pistol and fired the first shot in the restaurant.  Mr Vashishtha’s family denies this;  the police has released CCTV footage from cameras at the restaurant, but the video does not establish how the shootout began.