Stray bullet kills ex-brigadier: How Dehradun nightclub bill dispute spiraled into road shootout

DEHRADUN: Brigadier Mukesh Kumar Joshi (retd), 74, who served 32 years in the Army’s Intelligence Corps before retiring in 2010, died on his routine morning walk on Monday after a stray bullet hit him during an exchange of fire between occupants of two SUVs near Johri on Mussoorie Road.

Police later arrested four accused and said the incident, initially believed to be a case of road rage, had in fact begun with a billing dispute at Gen-Z nightclub the previous night. Police also sealed the club and started proceedings to cancel its licence.

Dehradun SSP Parmendra Dobhal said the chain of events began on Sunday night at the nightclub in the Kuthal Gate area, where a group of youngsters argued with bar staff over the bill. The dispute escalated and, during the altercation, bar employees allegedly smashed the rear glass of the group’s Scorpio-N parked outside. Though others present intervened and the matter appeared to have been settled, the youths left after threatening the bar staff.

Police said the two groups encountered each other again on Monday morning when bar employees were travelling in a Toyota Fortuner and the occupants of the Mahindra Scorpio spotted them near Kuthal Gate. The Scorpio occupants then chased the Fortuner towards Johri on Mussoorie Road. Police said shots were fired during the chase, leading to an exchange of fire on a public road.

The chase ended when the Fortuner lost control and crashed into a tree near a primary school after which the Scorpio occupants allegedly assaulted those inside the Fortuner with rods and sticks before fleeing the scene. During the firing, a stray bullet hit Joshi. He was rushed to Max Hospital, where he later died.

Joshi’s neighbour S P Sharma, 60, who was walking with Joshi and Rakesh Upreti, the brigadier’s brother-in-law, told TOI they had stepped out at 6.30am when they saw two speeding SUVs approach from the opposite direction.

“We moved to the extreme left of the road. As the vehicles came closer, we heard a gunshot and Joshi collapsed. At first, we thought he had suffered a stroke because he had undergone bypass surgery with stent implantation. But when we lifted his sweater, we saw blood on the right side of his chest and realised he had been shot. The whole episode happened within about 10 minutes of our stepping out for the walk,” said Sharma.

Adesh Rathore, another resident of the society, told TOI that locals saw a white Fortuner with Delhi registration stop after hitting a roadside tree. “A black Scorpio chasing it stopped nearby and its occupants pulled out the men from the Fortuner and assaulted them.”

Based on a complaint filed by Joshi’s relatives, police registered a murder case and launched an intensive investigation. “Multiple teams were formed, checkpoints were set up across the district, and CCTV footage was scanned to identify the accused,” Dobhal said. During questioning, two bar employees initially tried to mislead investigators by claiming it was a road rage incident, but interrogation later revealed the earlier dispute.

Police arrested Mohammad Akhlaq and Rohit Kumar and recovered two country-made pistols along with ammunition from nearby bushes. The bar owner, Sandeep Kumar, who is from Delhi, was also arrested for allegedly providing the weapons. In a parallel operation, police recovered the Scorpio from a forest area in Doiwala and arrested Aditya Chaudhary. “Efforts are underway to nab the remaining accused — Shantanu Tyagi, Kavish Tyagi, Sameer Chaudhary and Vaibhav,” an officer said. Police registered a case under section 103 (murder) of BNS and Arms Act.

“Police found that the group accused of shooting Brig Joshi first argued with another group of customers at the nightclub. When staff stepped in, they too got drawn into the dispute,” SP city Pramod Kumar said.