NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 22

JUST past 3 am, Thursday night, panic gripped the area around the Maruti showroom in Julfe Bengal, Seemapuri: a steady sound of gunshots.

The source: the service rifle of a guard on duty at the showroom, said to be mentally disturbed.

No one was injured in the incident.

According to the police, a constable patrolling the area heard the shots first and alerted the Police Control Room. But Kamruddin, 45, kept firing indiscriminately even after the arrival of police teams; at least one bullet hit a PCR van, the police said.

Kamruddin, who the police said joined the showroom as a security guard on February 14, comes from Bharatpur in Rajasthan.

DCP (Northeast district) Jaspal Singh said two police officers finally overpowered him after Kamruddin fired 13 rounds.

The incident took place at 3.10 am, and Kamruddin was at the time on the showroom’s terrace with another guard. According to the police, Constable Ashok, patrolling the area, heard the gunshots first and rushed in; he asked Kamruddin to come down from the terrace and hand over his rifle. In return, the guard took aim at the constable, the police said. The bullet, though, hit the constable’s motorcycle.

By then, eight PCR vans and senior officers of the district police had reached the spot, but the sirens did not stop Kamruddin — he kept firing on the police teams. “Two of his 13 rounds hit a PCR van and a bike,” DCP Singh said. “One officer finally reached the rooftop from an adjacent building and nabbed him.”

The police have registered a case of attempt to murder and under Arms Act and have taken Kamruddin’s single-barrel gun into possession.

Though the police claimed he was suffering from depression, which led to the shocking incident, Kamruddin’s family back in Bharatpur has claimed that he has no history of mental depression, the police said.