NOIDA: At least three passersby, including a teenager, have been injured in the encounter between Balraj Bhati and STF teams in Sector 41 on Monday.A 13-year-old boy, who had gone to get samosas from the Bikaner sweet shop—a plot adjacent to which became the spot of the encounter—a disposable items supplier, Ajay, and a worker with the Bikaner shop, Ravi, were injured.As the market was buzzing with visitors, the sudden firing took everyone by surprise. It was a shopkeeper who called local police as he felt that the shootout was between criminal gangs as STF officers were in casual dress.Within a few minutes, a team from Sector 49 police arrived on the spot and barricaded the area.The spot of encounter, however, was under Sector 39 police station area.Ajay, a supplier of disposable items, who had gone to a nearby shop, was seriously injured as a bullet had pierced through his stomach.A father of four children, Ajay is a resident of Bulandshahr but is currently staying on rent in a locality in Noida’s Sector 82.“I had just reached near the Bikaner sweets shop when I saw three criminals running and police chasing them. I couldn’t even park my bike and a bullet hit my back. I fell down from with the bike,” Ajay told TOI.13-year-old Ravinder was the next. “I had gone to get samosas when a bullet hit me,” he told TOI. He was taken to nearby Prayag hospital in Sector 41 by policemen.Gulzaripal, Ravinder’s father, told TOI that he has come to Noida some three months ago from Madhya Pradesh’s Lakhairi village.He got to know that his son was injured from a neighbour who had witnessed the encounter.A staffer in the emergency ward where he was admitted told TOI that a bullet has grazed his right leg.“The police got my child admitted to the hospital and are paying for the treatment. We had never expected this. He had gone to the shop for the first time,” his father told TOI.Another worker of the Bikaner Sweets shop, Ravi (21), was injured after a bullet grazed his stomach. Ravi belongs to Agra district and has been working at the shop for the past three months.He too was admitted to the district hospital from where he was later discharged.Uday Vir Singh, owner of Bikaner shop told TOI that as soon as he heard gunshots, he dialled 100 to inform police.“A police team came and barricaded the spot,” he said.“We try to avoid such situations but sometimes circumstances force police to react even in busy areas. Fortunately, there was no major casualty,” SSP Ajay Pal Sharma told TOI.

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