Four unidentified persons opened fire on a police patrol and public near Ramji Mandir Crossroads in the Paldi-Bhaththa area on Sunday evening. The cops say they were burglars trying to escape. Their bullets hit an old man who was passing by in a scooter. A bullet lodged in his waist and he is in hospital.

The police arrested one, while the rest escaped. The police top brass, including Commissioner O P Mathur, rushed to the spot.

 The police have deduced the four are burglars from the tool kit in the two vehicles they left behind while escaping. A country-made pistol was also recovered from the arrested man. He has been identified as Babloo alias Sanju from Indore.

According to the Ellisbridge police, the incident occurred when a police party on patrol was following two suspicious two-wheelers. “When they realised that we were following them, they stopped the vehicles and fired in the air. But when they found that the police will catch them, they caught one passer-by on a two-wheeler and tried to get his vehicle. When the driver resisted, one of the four shot him in the waist,” said Constable Bhurji Modiya, who was in the patrol party.

 The injured man has been identified as Kirit Shah, a resident of Paldi. He has been admitted to the VS Hospital, albeit in a serious condition.

“Babloo alias Sanju, in a bid to escape, tried to take a minor boy hostage at gunpoint. The boy was with his mother on a two-wheeler. Babloo put the gun on the temple of the boy and asked his mother to hand over the vehicle. But his attempt misfired when, in a bid to overpower the lady, he fell down and was caught by the people,” Modiya added.

 The Joint Commissioner of Police, Ahmedabad City Detection of Crime Branch (DCB), Ashish Bhatia, told Newsline that the four accused are burglars from Indore in Madhya Pradesh. “We have done the nakabandi to nab the other three accused, based on the description given by their arrested accomplice,” he said.

Security was stepped up in the area after the incident. Bhatia, however, refused to call it an act of terror.