A retired army man, who had allegedly shot dead three persons within a span of 26 hours in Uttar Pradesh before being apprehended, was gunned down in an 'encounter' with the police barely hours after his arrest.
According to the sources, the alleged killer, identified as 45-year old Gurpreet Singh, tried to escape after snatching the pistol from a cop, when the police had taken him to the crime spot for recreating the crime scene, and opened fire on the police and was killed in retaliatory firing by the cops late on Monday night . Three police personnel were injured in the encounter.
Wanted criminal shot dead in encounter in Uttar Pradesh; constable injuredGurpreet, who hailed from Amritsar and had retired from Army six years back had allegedly shot dead a passenger, identified as Dinesh Shah, a resident of Gaya district in Bihar, while he was travelling with his family in Jammu bound Kolkata-Jammu Tawi Express train near Deen Dayal Upadhyay railway station around midnight on Sunday. He managed to escape after the train slowed as it approached Varanasi railway station.
Earlier in the day he had allegedly shot dead a man, identified as Managru, a resident of Ghazipur district, in a passenger train near Sakaldiha railway station on Sunday morning. He threw the body of the deceased on the track before escaping, sources said.
Singh, on Monday morning, walked into a private hospital in Chandauli and shot a woman who was hospitalised, killing her on the spot. He was caught by the locals when he tried to flee after killing the woman. He was thrashed by the mob before being handed over to the police.