Two Delhi cops donate blood to save burglar they shot at in encounter

A Delhi Police team shot five bullets at a suspected burglar in an encounter in Rohini on Wednesday, dashed the bleeding man to a hospital and donated blood to keep him alive after surgery.

Constable Ashok Kumar often donates blood to old people and road accident victims, but has never had to do it for a suspect he shot at.

"Shooting at the criminal was my duty. I am performing my humanitarian duty now," he said, with bloodshot eyes betraying his lack of sleep as he signed on a form required for blood donation at Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Hospital.

His humane gesture contrasts what he and two of his colleagues went through just before dawn.

Residents of Ahinsa Vihar Apartment in Rohini Sector 9 spotted two men carrying backpacks trying to scale a boundary wall of the housing block around 4am. They called the police immediately and two policemen on bike patrol and another in a car were alerted.

The cops reached the spot and tried to corner the two suspects - 24-year-old Nitin and associate Salman, who had their faces covered. But the alleged burglars scaled another wall and jumped on the road outside, only to come face-to-face with assistant sub-inspector Ramashray Singh, head constable Rajesh Kumar and constable Ashok.

The suspects, who were around 15 metres away, took out pistols and fired at the policemen.

"A bullet whizzed past my left ear and I too pulled the trigger in self-defence. My colleague, ASI Ramashray, too began firing," constable Ashok said.

Ashok and Ramashray fired nine rounds with their service revolvers, and five of them hit Nitin - in one of his legs, both



arms and lower back. The one that caught his back did the maximum damage, and slumped to the ground.

His associate, Salman, managed to escape taking advantage of the darkness, said Rishi Pal, the Rohini deputy commissioner of police.

Nitin was dashed to Ambedkar hospital where the bullets were removed in a long surgery.

"Doctors said he would survive but required three or four units of blood," said SS Rathee, the station house officer of Prashant Vihar police station.

Rathee volunteered to donate blood - a unit measures approximately 450ml - and requested his colleagues to join him.

Head constable Rajesh agreed immediately, as did constable Ashok, who was itching to return to his barracks when the call for help came.

Ashok had stayed awake all night and thought of resting in the afternoon. But in no time he was in the hospital; lying back on a reclining chair and clenching his fist as the machine slowly drew his blood into a sachet.

Duty done, Ashok and Rajesh now have time to think what a close shave they had. They don't know what to say to their families in Rajasthan and Haryana. Bullets from the two suspects could have caught them too.

Doctors said Nitin, a native of Kasganj district in Uttar Pradesh, is out of danger.

A similar humanitarian story played out in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh on March 18 when a doctor-turned-IPS officer, Abhishek Pallav, shot at a Maoist in a seven-hour shootout and treated the wounded man.

"Though a fugitive, he is an Indian citizen. He deserved treatment," additional superintendent of police Pallav said.