A 30-year-old woman was critically injured on Wednesday morning after being shot at near Radisson Blu hotel in west Delhi’s Dwarka.

Police said that the woman, identified as Kiran Bala, was targeted by two motorcycle-borne men when she was driving back home after dropping her son at school.

The gunshots made Bala lose control of her vehicle, causing it to break through a road divider before crashing into a footpath several metres away. The car’s tyre burst and the vehicle’s airbags were deployed by the time it came to a halt.

Police said one bullet passed through Bala’s neck while another grazed her hand, leaving her battling for life at Venkateshwar Hospital in Dwarka.

Anto Alphonse, deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka), said that by Thursday evening, Bala’s husband Varun Yadav, was among four persons detained by the police for questioning. “The couple shared a strained relationship. Her husband is the primary suspect in the case,” said the DCP.

The officer said that Yadav has been arrested twice in the past, including once last year for shooting at someone during a drunken brawl. “He has worked with a bank in the past but is currently unemployed,” said the officer.

Yadav had married Bala in 2008. They have a four-year-old son who studies at a private school located near the crime spot. Bala is a homemaker who sometimes dabbles in real estate dealings. According to the police, the couple has been embroiled in a matrimonial dispute that is currently playing out in a court.

A senior police officer said that Bala lived in a Dwarka flat owned by her in-laws. Her husband lived elsewhere in the same neighbourhood. “Earlier this year, her husband had filed a case of trespassing against her after accusing her of trying to occupy another flat owned by him,” said the officer.

On Thursday morning, Bala had dropped her son off at his school and was driving back her Nissan Go car when she was attacked.

According to an eye-witness, Mahender, the two men wearing helmets and riding a red Pulsar motorcycle closed in on Bala’s car while it was about to negotiate a roundabout near Radisson Blu hotel in Dwarka Sector 12 around 7.45am.

“The pillion rider whipped out a pistol and fired multiple times at the woman through the car’s window on the driver’s side. The men then sped away. Their motorcycle didn’t have a number plate,” said Mahender.

Police suspect that the shooting caused the woman to lose control over her car and jam her foot down on the accelerator in panic. “The car swerved off the roundabout, broke through a road verge and then crashed into a footpath about 60-70 metres frem the spot where she was shot at,” said Mahender.

An auto-rickshaw driver, who was resting nearby, immediately rushed to her help. “The bullet had knocked her unconscious but her car’s airbags saved her from more harm. I brought her out, loaded her on an e-rickshaw and rushed her to a hospital,” said the driver, who didn’t want to identify himself.

Bala’s siblings told the police that they suspected her husband of having plotted the attack, prompting the police to pick him up for questioning. “We are probing if the matrimonial dispute or conflicts between them over property had anything to do with the attack,” said the DCP.

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