Madhya Pradesh: Braveheart cops recall point-blank gunfight against ‘psycho killer’

INDORE: It was dark. But in the streetlight filtering through the trees, there was no mistaking the stocky man walking briskly towards his hideout. The plainclothesmen hiding in the shadows stepped forward, and sub-inspector Ayyub Khan shouted, “Halt. You are surrounded.”
“What? Just five men to arrest me?” mocked the target, ‘psycho killer’ Dilip Dewal, as he whipped out a pistol and started shooting.
In two decades of being in khaki, SI Khan had never thought he would be in the thick of a gunfight. “Even as it was happening, it felt surreal. Never imagined anything like it,” Khan, who was injured in the gunbattle, told TOI from his hospital bed on Saturday.

Police knew Dewal, accused of nine murders, including a family’ triple murder in Ratlam a week prior, wouldn’t go quietly. The arrest party had gone armed and prepared for every eventuality, but hoped he would realise the futility of a fight and give himself up.
Khan told TOI that he was going through technical evidence with his team in their search for Dilip when the phone rang at 9.20pm on Thursday. It had been over 24 hours that Dilip’s alleged accomplices in the triple murder had been arrested, and police were closing in on the ‘psycho killer’.

It was SP Gaurav Tiwari on the line. Dilip had been traced to a rented accommodation in Mid-Town Colony near Khachrod Road. Khan and his men were told to rush to the spot.
“The colony has two gates, but Dilip was using a hole in the boundary wall to get in and out,” Khan said. Mid-Town was the perfect hideout for Dilip because it is easily accessible and yet is sparsely-populated. “Many of the houses are under construction and empty and most of the area is in darkness,” said Khan.
Dressed in plainclothes, the team of five — Khan, SI Anurag Yadav and constables Himmat Gaur, Vipul Bhavsar and Balram Patidar — reached the colony in 10 minutes and linked up with personnel from Station Road already on the spot.
Khan and his team decided to lead the operation as they were in plainclothes. The Station Road cops, who were in uniform, formed a backup line 50 metres away.
“We knew how he looked because we had been looking at CCTV footage all week. I recognized him straight away. He was walking down a road that led to us,” said Khan.
At 9:40pm, with Dilip just a few feet away, SI Khan shouted at him to surrender, warning him that he was surrounded. The killer started mocking the cops.
“You have brought only five men to arrest me?” Dilip shouted back and laughed at them, even as he pulled out a gun and fired two shots, recalls Khan.
The police team had their weapons drawn too but fired the first shots in the air, said police. Under the cover of these warning shots, constables Vipul and Balram sprinted forward to nab him but Dilip began shooting again.
“Without thinking about our lives, the rest of us rushed to save the two team members,” said Khan. What ensued was a point-blank gunfight.
“Dilip fired at me but I turned by instinct. The bullet grazed my stomach and ribs and passed,” said Khan. SI Anurag recalls Khan lunging at Dilip and grabbing him.
“Dilip was firing continuously at us and we were trying to save ourselves. Ducking the bullets, I jumped and tried to grab him but fell on a heap of gravel and fractured my right leg and injured my back,” said Anurag.
“Bullets were zipping around in the dark. There was a point when all of us were trying to nab Dilip. Ayyub sir had held him from the back, but he fired at him and he fell down. It was then that Ayyub sir and I fired at him. We heard him fall on the ground and cough. We retreated as we were injured and the second team came into action,” said Anurag, who had a 9mm pistol.
Khan, who was armed with a Glock, said: “Anurag and I fired at Dilip and saw him fall to the ground. He was bleeding. The other team members rushed him to hospital but he was declared dead.”
It is yet to be ascertained whose bullet hit Dilip, said SP Gaurav Tiwari, adding that forensic experts inspected the encounter site on Friday.
Doctors at Ratlam district hospital said Khan was injured in the ribs and the bullet left scorch marks on his body but he is recovering.