Further, the hotel owner-manager said they asked the Gurgaon police to call local police first but the Gurgaon police convinced them that they would inform the Mumbai police later. The Mumbai crime branch officials are investigating these claims by taking the statements of the Andheri and Sahar police officials. At the time, the hotel staff told the Gurgaon team they could not enter Gadoli’s room without the local police, but the cops allegedly began to threaten the staffers, saying they had an order from the “Commissioner” to not involve anyone else in the plan.
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Police sources said, few days ago crime unit of Gurgaon police got tip-off that Gadoli and his gang members are hiding in a hotel at Andheri East in Mumbai.
The Gurgaon police alleged that when they entered the room, Gadoli opened fire on them and they shot in self-defence.
Sandeep Gadoli had 36 offences of serious nature registered against him in Delhi and neighbouring areas. In addition, they should also have made an entry into the local police station diary about it. The Mumbai police is now probing these details to see whether protocol was breached. While the team that visited Mumbai has claimed to Mumbai Police officials that they visited two police stations and were given the run-around, Mumbai Police officials said that there was no contact from the visiting team till after the encounter. “In such cases they give information to the senior officers who would then assign a relevant police team to assist them”, an officer said. In this particular instance, the hotel was 60 per cent full and the situation could have easily gone out of control.
The encounter took place around 11 am at the Airport Metro Hotel in suburban Andheri.
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As per norms laid down by the National Human Rights Commission, the Crime Branch is conducting an enquiry into the incident to find out if there was any violation of human rights in the cross firing.
