Bhopal:
A fight between pet dogs snowballed into a brawl between their owners and ended with two deaths in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore on Thursday, police said. Rajpal Singh Rajawat, a security guard at a bank, opened fire on his neighbours from his balcony last night, killing two and injuring six others.
“Rajpal Singh Rajawat posted as a security guard at a local branch of Bank of Baroda, opened fire with his licensed gun in a colony located under Khajrana police station limits following an argument over pet dogs,” Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Amrendra Singh said.
Rajawat and his neighbour Vimal Amcha, 35, were walking their dogs at a narrow lane in Krishna Bagh Colony at 11pm when the two animals lunged at each other.
Soon, an argument began between the two men, after which Rajawat ran up to his first-floor home and fired at Amcha using a 12-bore shotgun.
A video of the horrific shooting shows Rajawat loading the shotgun and firing a warning shot in the air before aiming at the street below. The shots are followed by screams from the street.
Amcha, who ran a hair salon in the city, died on the spot, along with his brother-in-law, 27-year-old Rahul Verma. The pregnant wife of Rahul Verma, Jyoti Verma, suffered a pellet injury to her eye, the police said.
Six others, who were on the street when the fight broke out, also suffered bullet injuries and have been hospitalised. Two of them have been seriously injured, police said.
Rajawat was arrested along with his son Sudhir and another relative, Shubham. A case of murder has been filed against him, they said.
A native of Gwalior, Rajawat was hired by a private firm as a security guard in Indore because he owned a licensed 12-bore shotgun, police said.
The neighbourhood is in shock over the killings. A neighbour, Pallavi Borse, was quoted by PTI as saying that the fight escalated when the two fighting dogs entered Vimal Amcha’s home and he chased them away.
“Two pet dogs from our lane, including the one owned by Rajawat, started fighting with each other. During their fight, when they started entering Amcha’s house, his brother Pramod chased Rajawat’s dog away with a stick. Soon a heated argument broke out between the two parties over it,” he said.