BSP leader's son brandishing gun at Hyatt hotel in Delhi
The Delhi Police has launched a manhunt to nab Ashish Pandey, son of former Bahujan Samaj Party MP Rakesh Pandey, who was seen brandishing a gun at guests and threatening them in the foyer of a five-star hotel.
Following the incident, the police rushed three of its teams to Lucknow and alerted all airports across the country to trace the accused.
"The police have registered a case. We are coordinating with the Uttar Pradesh Police and teams are looking out for him," Joint Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Ajay Chaudhary said.
"We have added the relevant sections based on the video. An LOC has been opened up for him. Checkposts along the UP-Nepal border have been put on an alert and LOCs have been isued at all airports across the country," he said.
"No complaint was lodged by the victim and the hotel staff the same day. There is negligence on the part of the victim, hotel authorities and the accused," he said.
The Delhi Police has also issued a show-cause notice to The Hyatt Regency, where the accused was seen brandishing the gun, and sought a reply as to why action should not be taken against it. The hotel has been given 15 days to respond to the notice.
In a statement issued earlier in the day, The Hyatt Regency assured the authorities conducting the probe of full cooperation.
"We assure our support and will continue to fully cooperate with the authorities in reference to any further investigation in this matter," the hotel said in the statement.
Ashish Pandey is a realtor and also owns petrol pumps. His phone is switched off since morning and human intelligence is being used to trace him, police said.
The Delhi Police said the complaint about the incident was received Monday from the assistant security manager of the Hyatt Regency hotel in RK Puram.
The incident, a video of which went viral on the social media, occurred in the early hours of Sunday, police said.
In the video, Ashish Pandey, whose brother Ritesh Pandey is an MLA in Uttar Pradesh, is purportedly seen brandishing a gun in the foyer of the hotel, a police officer said.
After the video went viral, Gaurav, son of former Congress MLA Kanwar Karan Singh, sent a written statement Tuesday afternoon to the police. In the evening, he went to the police in person and recorded his statement.
Gaurav, a businessman in his late 20s, had gone to the woman's washroom in the hotel to help a friend, who was unwell and Pandey's friends, who came to the washroom, created a ruckus over it and subsequently, it snowballed into an argument.
Pandey then walked up to his BMW car and got the weapon from it.
Police said the security staff of the hotel told them that the accused and victims were partying at a nightclub in the hotel and had an argument over using the washroom.
A woman accompanying the accused abused the victims and called them "transgenders", a senior officer privy to the probe said.
It is suspected that both the parties involved were drunk at the time of the incident, he said.
"No PCR call was made by any of the parties or even by the hotel authorities. It is negligence on the part of the hotel as something major could have happened.
"We had written to the licensing branch about the hotel's negligence and they have issued a show-cause notice to the hotel," another officer privy to the probe said.
He said after the video went viral, police contacted the hotel authorities following which they lodged the complaint.
The police said it had issued a Look-Out Circular (LOC) for Pandey and also contacted their Uttar Pradesh counterparts.
The Delhi Police said an FIR has been registered under the Arms Act and sections of the IPC, including those related to causing hurt (323), criminal intimidation (506) and using force with the intent to outrage the modesty of a woman (354).
Initially, the case was registered under the Arms Act and the sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) were added later, police said.
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