So, who fired the first shot? How many shots were actually fired? Were any shots fired from the other side at all?

The police version of the shootout that took place outside Ashoka Hotel, in which Siriya Pehalwan was shot dead and dreaded UP gangster-politician Madan Bhaiya and his associates were arrested, has a lot of holes. And maybe the story is totally different. So says the security guard, who was on duty at the British Embassy at that time and saw the event unfold before his eyes.Terrified and shaken by the events, he says he had just stepped out to join his colleagues for lunch, when he heard some people shouting. ``I heard some male voices shouting `pakro! pakro! bhagne na paaye.The voices were coming from the hotel premises,'' he said.

Lunch was forgotten as curiosity got the better of him and he turned for a better view of the hotel's exit gate.

As he was standing on the other side of the road, opposite the hotel's exit gate, he had a clear and unobstructed view of the hotel's sloping driveway leading to the gate.

``I saw some men dressed in civil clothes running behind a white Maruti Zen. Then these men, who were trailing the Zen on foot, fired a few rounds in the air. Since the policemen were not in uniform, I assumed that they both belonged to rival gangs,'' he said narrating the sequence of events.

At that point, as the Zen was trying to head out on the road, an Armada halted right outside the exit gate. Since no one stepped out of the Armada and its dark windows were rolled up, he could not say how many men were sitting inside. ``The Zen's way was blocked by the Armada. But instead of stopping, the Zen driver swerved towards the left, slowed a little and tried to getaway. It was at that time that the policemen shot indiscriminately at the Zen,'' he says. The security guard says that he heard eight shots, all of which were aimed towards the Zen. One of them obviously hit the driver as he lost control of the vehicle, which rammed into an autorickshaw parked a few yards away from him.

He insists that all shots were fired by the men chasing the car and he did not see anyone firing back from the car. He also claims that after the car crashed into the auto-rickshaw and lurched to a halt, two men got off the car and started running. However, he claims that they were soon overpowered by the men on foot.

Interestingly, while Dr Paul, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) insisted that only two shots were fired and both of them hit Siriya Pehalwan, killing him instantaneously, the body of the damaged Zen told a different story. The cracked window from the driver's side, through which the fatal shot had been fired, lay on the road and there were two other bullet marks on thecar. One was on the edge of the rear door, behind the driver's side and the other one was on the lid of the petrol tank. Both the spots had been circled with chalk and the words `bullet mark' were written next to them.

Since the police maintain that they fired only two shots that hit Siriya and no shots were fired from the Opel Astra, no one knows who fired the other two shots. Despite repeated queries, Dr Paul was unable to provide any satisfactory answer to them. Moreover, as the window of the Zen was rolled up and had dark films, how did Siriya fire four shots at the police, before they fired back is also not clear.

According to reliable sources, as per the information that the police had, another UP gangster Hemu Gujjar was supposed to come to the hotel this morning. He was scheduled to work out the details of the ransom of Rs 5 crore with his associates that they were supposed to collect from the family of Swatantra Rastogi, a Meerut-based businessman who was abducted a few days ago. The trap hadbeen laid for him and not Madan Bhaiya.