NEW DELHI: A gunfight broke out between police and a 26-year-old man accused of killing a 21-year-old Delhi University student in west Delhi’s Tilak Nagar, after police intercepted him while trying to apprehend him on Friday, officials said.The accused, Aqib alias Imran, was subsequently arrested after sustaining three bullet injuries to his leg.According to police, Imran fired four rounds at the police personnel, who retaliated by firing seven rounds.He was injured in the exchange of fire and taken into custody.Imran, who worked as a gym trainer, had been absconding since allegedly stabbing the woman to death at her apartment on August 26. More than 15 police teams had been formed to trace him.“Following the incident, barricades and checkpoints were put up across the district, and teams were deployed to trace him. Imran kept changing his hideouts. Acting on a tip-off, teams of the Special Staff and Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) laid a trap to apprehend him,” a senior police officer told news agency PTI.According to police, Imran had known the woman for around 18 months. He first met her at the gym where he worked as a trainer.The woman, a second-year student at Delhi University’s School of Open Learning (SOL), was also a content creator and part-time model. Her elder sister is a model, according to people known to the family.She was the youngest of four siblings and lived with her parents and siblings in a rented house near Mangla Hospital in west Delhi.Imran was unemployed and had worked at the gym for around three months before being removed about two months ago over alleged inappropriate behaviour with customers, a gym worker said.On July 18, the woman had approached a police station and complained that Imran was harassing her. However, she did not file a formal complaint, police said.Police later sent Imran to a de-addiction centre due to his history of drug use. He was released on July 30 after allegedly harming himself at the centre, police said.Police said the woman did not want to continue her relationship with Imran, but he allegedly continued pursuing her.Investigators suspect Imran became enraged after she started talking to someone else during the last two months.On the evening of August 26, Imran allegedly went to the woman’s house when she was alone. An argument broke out, following which he allegedly stabbed her multiple times with a knife before fleeing, police said.CCTV footage showed Imran entering the building around 5.40 pm, a police source said.The Tilak Nagar police station received a PCR call at 7.24 pm regarding the stabbing of a girl, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Hareshwar V Swami said.The woman’s house help found her lying injured on the second floor of the building and informed her family, following which police were called.She was rushed to a hospital, where doctors declared her dead on arrival, police said.(With agency inputs)
