Visuals of the chilling murder of a 26-year-old man inside a Burger King outlet in west Delhi’s Rajouri Garden have surfaced, showing how the targetted killing took place at the popular fast food joint.

The victim, Aman, was sitting with a woman. She is showing the man a picture on her phone. At 9:41 pm, the first shots were fired. Two men sitting behind the victim took their pistols out and shot him in the back.

The gunshots created panic inside the outlet and people were seen running away. Aman ran towards the billing counter and the men in orange and white shirts chased him and shot him multiple times from point-blank range. One of the shooters stood on the counter and fired several times.

Meanwhile, the woman sitting with Aman was unfazed by the incident and walked off the food joint. In less than a minute, the entire Burger King outlet was empty.

As many as 38 bullets of three different makes were fired at Aman Joon inside the fast food outlet at Rajouri Garden in west Delhi Tuesday night, the FIR says. The different bullets suggest that more than two weapons were used by the two shooters.

Aman’s body was found behind the billing counter, indicating that he tried to flee when the killers opened fire. The killers, the Burger King staff have said, were in the 25-30 years age group.

The cops suspect it may have been revenge for a 2020 murder in Haryana. Police suspect gang rivalry led to the shocking murder that has raised questions about the law and order situation in the capital. 

The Mystery Woman

The woman who sat with Aman may have lured him into coming to Burger King, sources told NDTV. The woman’s role in the crime is under probe. The woman, police sources say, has a criminal record and attempts are being made to track her down. She vanished with Aman’s phone and wallet. 

The Portugal Connection

Fugitive gangster Himanshu Bhau, suspected to be in Portugal now, has claimed responsibility for the murder in a social media post and a police officer told PTI that police suspect the same. Himanshu Bhau has said in the post that Aman was involved in the murder of “our brother” Shakti Dada and “this was revenge”. He warned the others involved and said their “turn will come soon”. 

Himanshu Bhau, whose gang operates across Delhi and Haryana, is notorious for extortion, the police officer said. Bhau, an associate of jailed gangster Neeraj Bawana, fled the country in 2022.

The battle for the chief minister’s chair may have ended in Andhra Pradesh, but a larger war over furniture is heating up.

Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP ended five years of rule by the YSR Congress Party and its chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in the just-concluded elections – winning 135 of 175 seats – and has begun pulling out the alleged skeletons in its opponent’s closet.

After alleging that Mr Reddy had built a Rs 500-crore “hilltop palace” in Visakhapatnam as a camp office, the TDP is now calling the former chief minister a ‘furniture chor‘ (thief), claiming that he has held on to furnishings and fittings worth crores at his residence-cum-camp office in Tadepalli, which were paid for by the taxpayer.

The epithet is also payback for a similar charge that was hurled by the YSR Congress at TDP leader and former assembly speaker, Kodela Siva Prasad Rao. A series of cases had been filed against Rao and he was also called a ‘furniture chor‘, a humiliation that allegedly led to him dying by suicide in September 2019, according to his son, Kodela Sivaram.

Rao was accused of diverting furniture bought for his use, when he became the first speaker of bifurcated Andhra Pradesh in 2014, to a showroom run by Mr Sivaram. The allegations were made by the YSR Congress after it defeated the TDP in the 2019 elections.

While Kodela Sivaram has made an explicit accusation against Mr Reddy, IT minister Nara Lokesh has taken a dig, asking the former chief minister when he plans to return the furniture.

A police complaint has also been filed by TDP Mahila wing leader Tejaswini in Anantapur, alleging that Mr Reddy and his associates had pushed Kodela Siva Prasad to suicide by humiliating him and filing police cases against him.

Rubbishing the allegations, a YSR Congress leader said Mr Reddy has already written to the state government and said that he will pay for all the furniture and fittings that are on his premises. 

Palatial Row

Mr Reddy is already under fire for an extravagant complex of seven buildings on Rushikonda Hills, dubbed “Jagan’s Palace” by his critics, who say the Rs 500-crore complex had been constructed to serve as the home and camp office of the chief minister, who wanted to make Visakhapatnam Andhra Pradesh’s executive capital.

YSR Congress leaders, however, insist that it was an asset created by the government and belongs not to Mr Reddy but to the tourism department. “We lost our assets when the state was bifurcated in 2014. So our leader wanted to create a complex that could serve as a VVIP guest house for the President, Prime Minister and others when they visit, as a venue for hosting international guests to hold conventions, or as a luxury tourist stay option,” said a party leader.

Former tourism minister RK Roja Selvamani had, however, told reporters earlier this year that the Rushikonda property had been shortlisted as an option for the chief minister’s camp office, and this had been approved by a three-member committee, which was scouting a suitable location. The secrecy around the structure, its opulence and its cost have also not worked in the YSR Congress’ favour. 

Tit For Tat?

The question now is what the Chandrababu Naidu government will do with the property. The chief minister’s son and state minister Nara Lokesh has said an inquiry will be ordered, justice will be done and the building will be devoted to the people of Andhra Pradesh.

In 2019, one of the first actions taken by the Jagan Mohan Reddy government was to demolish a Praja Vedika (government hall), constructed at a cost of Rs 8.9 crore near Mr Naidu’s house in Vijayawada’s Undavalli. The structure was close to Mr Naidu’s heart and he had asked Mr Reddy to allow it to stand, but it was bulldozed after being declared illegal. 

The remains of the structure were left next to Mr Naidu’s residence and the chief minister has now welcomed a suggestion to convert the area into a museum to showcase how ruling parties and governments should not function. He has also likened it to the museums at Hiroshima and Nagasaki and said it should serve as an example of destructive governance and inspire people to move forward.

At the time of the incident, there were around 50 people present, including a dozen staffers. “By the time people could comprehend what was happening, the shooters had fired about a dozen bullets. It all happened in seconds… As soon as their first magazines were empty, people started running out,” said a waiter who declined to be named. The shooters, along with a woman, blended into the fleeing crowd and escaped while appearing to be customers.