Close to nabbing Teotia, claim police

GHAZIABAD: More than two days after BJP leader

Brijpal Teotia

almost died in an attack by gun-wielding assailants on his convoy on Rawli Road in Murad Nagar, Ghaziabad, no arrests have been made.

Claiming that they were close to cracking the case, senior UP police officers on Saturday said that about half a dozen persons have been detained for questioning.

Meanwhile, Brijpal Teotia, whose condition remained critical in

Fortis Hospital

in Noida’s Sector 62 on Saturday, was still in the intensive care unit of the hospital.

“About 20-25 police teams are working round the clock in the investigations. We have detained nearly half a dozen suspects who are being interrogated for their possible involvement in the attack. We have not arrested anyone so far. A team has been sent for making enquiries in Faridabad and Gurgaon about the Fortuner that was retrieved from Niwadi on Friday. This enquiry was initiated after it emerged that the Fortuner had been stolen from Gurgaon,” Ghaziabad SSO K Sunil Emmanuel told TOI.

According to police sources, the mobile phones of several aides and close associates of Teotia, including his personal gunmen, have been placed under surveillance. The call detail records of these mobile phones in the past few days are also being verified. The police suspect the role of one or more moles within Teotia’s coterie of aides and

gunmen

who could have possibly revealed details about his movements to the attackers.

A close aide of Teotia told TOI that his attackers seemed to know a lot about the leader’s movements and other details. “Teotia usually travelled in a red-and-white coloured Pajero. However, his attackers knew that he would be travelling in a Scorpio on August 11. The attackers had prior knowledge about the route he was taking on August 11 evening,” the aide said.

The attackers came armed with AK-47 rifles and automatic weapons because they had prior information that Teotia moved around with gunmen who wielded only pistols. “The gunman who had been provided to him by local police earlier, used to be armed with a sten gun. The attackers probably also knew that this gunman had been withdrawn more than a month ago,” said the aide, who wished to remain anonymous.

Police said the role of his private gunmen was also under the scanner since three of them had been newly recruited after the withdrawal of the one provided by local police.

All suspects picked up so far for interrogation belong to Ghaziabad. Police officers said they have been vindicated so far on their line of investigation — personal enmity being the root cause of the attack.