He pulled me back to safety but fell to bullets

When the news of gunfire broke I was happy that the antisocial elements were eliminating each other. It was only a few calls later that I found it was not a gang war. Terrorists had virtually laid siege to Mumbai. I and colleague Mukesh Trivedi hopped onto motorbikes and left for CST. While crossing the JJ flyover we felt the heat of the situation. The police stopped us, their guns pointed at us. They were not taking chances. They checked our bags, our I- cards and told us not to take the DN Road but to take the route via Metro theatre.

Mukesh and I left in different directions but somehow we both reached the signal near Metro at the same time. Then we saw a police jeep, a Qualis, coming towards us at high speed. It had a flat tyre. It wobbled as it moved. Just when I thought something was wrong, assistant police inspector Arun Chitte pulled me back. The occupants of this jeep were firing in the direction of the media and the police. I turned round to see Chitte, who was next to me, collapse. He took two bullets in the chest. We put him in a vehicle to take him to hospital. He died on the way. A TV cameraperson too was injured in the palm.