The police swung into action barely 10 minutes after the incident but found no trace of the culprits. The daring attack spread panic in the colony of police officers which is at a stone's throw from the residences of the District Magistrate and the Senior Superintendent of Police. Pitam Singh's Kavi Nagar house (no: 23 in C block) is situated opposite the district courts. His son, four-year-old Parakh, was a few steps ahead of his father and was climbing the stairs of their first-floor house. Before Singh could reach the stairs, a white Maruti car coming from the direction of the Ingraham Institute screeched to a halt outside the gate. Two men with weapons in hand jumped out of the car while the driver kept the car running.

Singh made an attempt to reach the stairs but in vain. The assailants opened fire, saw the inspector fall and fled. They had fired around 25-30 shots and nine of them hit Singh.

Commando Rakesh Kumar, posted at the adjoining camp office of the Special Task Force, rushed to pick up his weapon but returned too late. By then the miscreants had fled. The commando took Singh to Yashoda Hospital in the car of Inspector R.C. Sharma but Singh succumbed to his injuries on the way.

Meanwhile, Sharma had informed the police control room and the Kavi Nagar police. Commando Rakesh told the police that the registration number of the assailants' car was DL4C 4726. The police sealed the district borders but were unable to catch the culprits. Senior district police officials suspect the involvement of an organised western UP gang. Senior Superintendent of Police (Ghaziabad) Subhash Chandra Gupta said that the police had some vital clues but did not disclose them. ``The modus operandi of the assailants and the weapons used by them show that they are not small-time operators. And we are not clueless. Arrest of the culprits is just a matter of time''.

Inspector General of Police R.C. Sharma, Deputy Inspector General of Police V.K. Guta, SSP and city SP went to the spot. Kavi Nagar houses at least six sub-inspectors and around six armed commandos are posted in the area. Local BJP MP Ramesh Chandra Tomar lives in the same row of the deceased Inspector's house.

Inspector Pitam Singh had been transferred to the Ghaziabad Police Headquarters after a long and controversial tenure in Ghaziabad. From there he was posted to the Special Task Force (STF). He was the incharge of the STF unit of Ghaziabad. He was transferred to the Police Training College in Moradabad just a week ago.

Inspector Pitam Singh was known for killing more than a dozen of western UP gangsters in encounters. In 1984, hundreds of guests at Pitam Singh's own marriage party had witnessed a shootout between gangsters Satbeer Gujjar and Mahendra Fauji. In the same year, he killed two gangsters who were fleeing after robbing a bank in Meerut.

Pitam Singh was credited with abolishing the dreaded Ashok Tyagi gang of western UP by killing kingpin Sumit Tyagi in a July 1989 shootout. In 1987, he killed notorious criminals Ilam Dhobi and Brijendra. Between 1988 and 1989, he killed seven gangsters in six encounters.

In February 1988, he killed a wanted dacoit, Suraj. Next was Baleshwar Jatav, wanted in several cases of kidnapping and murders. In September 1988, he killed criminal Rajkumar Jatav and in January 1989, he killed Gurmeen. In April, Singh killed Sukhveer after a shootout in the Link Road Police Station area. In June 1989, he killed Idrees.