By Sanjeev Kumar Singh Chauhan

New Delhi, Feb 17 (IANS): Two dreaded criminals were killed in an exchange of fire with the Special Cell of Delhi Police at Prahladpur near Badarpur in the early hours on Monday. Those killed have been identified as Rafeeq alias Raja Pehlwan and Ramesh Bahadur.

A top officer of Delhi Police told IANS, "Both the criminals fired several rounds at us. We came out safe as we had life saving bullet proof jackets."

As per reports, the incident took place at 5 a.m. on Monday when the police asked the alleged criminals to surrender. First they tried to escape but when that did not happen, they opened fire upon the police. In the retaliatory action by the police, both the criminals were injured and were rushed to the hospital where the doctors declared them brought dead.

One of the slain criminal Rafeeq alias Raja was a resident of Loni area in Ghaziabad, while Ramesh Bahadur was a resident of Shiv Vihar, Karawal Nagar in Delhi.

The two criminals were wanted in multiple cases of crime including murder in Ghaziabad and Delhi. He was a terror in Loni area of Ghaziabad, according to the police.

According to sources in Delhi Police, Raja Pehalwan and Ramesh Bahadur were involved in attack on two policemen on February 12 also.