Case File | The curious case of the ‘Santro gang’ that went on a crime spree

As Covid-19 restrictions were lifted in June 2021, four men who wanted to enter the big leagues of Delhi's crime world by committing several crimes in quick succession realised that they bit off far more than they could chew.

New Delhi: It was a hot morning on June 8, 2021, with less than 24 hours having passed since the unlocking of Delhi. The night curfew, imposed in the national capital to stem the spread of the second wave of Covid-19, had begun. That's when the Delhi Police control room was rocked by at least four back-to-back calls regarding street crimes committed within one and a half hours.

The Santro car that the four used in the crimes was recovered, albeit completely charred, from a field at Fazalpur village in Baghpat following the interrogation of the three men. (HT Photo/Representative Image)

Although receiving such street crime calls was not unusual for the police, what triggered panic among the top functionaries of the city police and forced some of them to come out from the comfort of their homes was the fact that four serious street crimes, which included the murder of a truck driver on the slightest of resistance during a robbery, were committed by four men travelling in a silver Santro car.

The way the suspects used the firearm while committing the crimes in quick succession in four different police districts was what made senior police officers suspect that the group were out on a crime spree. What followed next was the usual drill that any police force carries out in cases of crime sprees — messages were flashed on the wireless sets detailing the model and colour of the car and police teams which specialise in cracking such cases were called in.

“The last time we heard about a similar crime spree was in 2008, when a spate of murders during robberies were committed by a ‘biker gang’ led by Om Prakash alias Bunty. Until Bunty and his associate, Rajesh, were gunned down in a police encounter inside a house near the Badarpur border on August 25, their frequent robberies and snatchings created havoc and fear among citizens and the police as well. The memories of the biker gang returned when we analysed the crime pattern of the ‘Santro Gang’,” said a senior police officer, who was part of the teams that were tasked to nab the three suspects.

As many as 20 teams of four districts — northwest, west, central and south — apart from the special cell and crime branch began working on the four cases and collecting clues about the four unidentified suspects. After sustained efforts for three days, the special staff team of the northwest district cracked the case by arresting three suspects, identified as Rizwan, Shamshad and Nasir, all residents of Loni near Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, from an abandoned pump house located between agricultural fields in a village near Garh Mukteshwar. The fourth suspect, identified as Bhola, who drove the car during the crimes could not be arrested.

The Santro car that the four used in the crimes was recovered, albeit completely charred, from a field at Fazalpur village in Baghpat following the interrogation of the three men. The trio revealed that they set the car ablaze to destroy the evidence and avoid getting caught. They had stolen the car in November 2020 from the Jahangirpuri area. The car remained parked outside Bhola's house, who affixed a fake number plate on it. Their disclosure of the motives behind their crime spree baffled the interrogators.

“Their sole objective was to mark their entry into Delhi’s crime world. Previously, all four committed petty thefts such as stealing batteries of parked vehicles, mostly in Ghaziabad. But they were not satisfied with their crimes and their earnings, so they decided to make it big for themselves. They purchased two pistols and bullets and that emboldened them. However, our team arrested them and shattered their dreams,” said deputy commissioner of police (northwest) Usha Rangnani, quoting the disclosures of the three arrested suspects.

The police officers were amazed when the trio disclosed that it was not just the four street crimes, but that they made three more failed robbery attempts in five districts while driving 70-80 kilometres around the city between 2.30 am and 4 am on June 8. Not only that, nearly five hours after committing the series of crimes, the four robbers returned to the crime scene in Punjabi Bagh where they had shot dead the truck driver.

A spontaneous plan for a sensational crime spree

Inspector Amit Kumar, head of the special staff team that solved the cases, said that the three arrested men disclosed that around 10 pm on June 7, Bhola left his northwest Delhi Mukundpur home for Loni in the stolen Santro car and returned to his room around 11 pm with Rizwan, Shamshad and Nasir. They consumed liquor and around 11.30 pm, embarked on the crime spree, after planning to create havoc on Delhi’s Ring Road to get themselves noticed in Delhi’s crime world.

They first allegedly stole four wheels of another Santro car parked in the Mukundpur area and replaced their car’s wheels with them near the Azadpur vegetable market. The police said they allegedly stole the wheels to ensure the tyres do not burst during the crime spree or in case they face a police chase. They remained in the vegetable market till 2.15 am on June 8, eating omelettes at a roadside stall and discussing their next course of action.

Around 2.30 am, the four reached a residential neighbourhood in Singalpur village in northwest Delhi’s Shalimar Bagh, where their alleged attempt to steal the battery of a parked e-rickshaw was thwarted by the wife of the vehicle owner who raised an alarm from the balcony of her first floor flat. Enraged, Rizwan allegedly fired his pistol, but the bullet hit a window AC of the adjacent house. Thereafter, all four left the place in their car.

The four then drove towards Punjabi Bagh. On the way, near Prem Bari Pul, they waylaid an autorickshaw and robbed the mobile phones of the driver and the passenger. However, no call to the police was made regarding the crime, an investigator, who did not want to be named, said.

In Punjabi Bagh near the Basai Darapur ESI hospital, the four men intercepted a truck by stopping their car in front of it. Rizwan and Nasir came out and entered the truck from either side door of the cabin and asked the driver to hand over all cash and valuables. The 50-year-old truck driver, Laxmi Chand, overpowered Nasir. At this, Rizwan pumped a bullet in his waist, snatched his cell phone and ₹5,000 and fled in their car. Jitender, the helper of the truck driver, informed the police about the crime. Chand was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was declared brought dead, the police said.

From Punjabi Bagh, the four drove towards central Delhi and on the way, they allegedly fired a bullet at another e-rickshaw driver when their attempt to steal the vehicle’s battery failed. The incident took place somewhere on the Ring Road between Punjabi Bagh and ITO, where they also allegedly robbed the passenger of an auto of his mobile phone. While the firing incident on Ring Road was not reported to the police, the phone theft at ITO was reported.

Using the Ring Road, the four reached south Delhi. The suspects allegedly robbed their last victim, the driver of a car who was changing a flat tyre near the Moolchand flyover in south Delhi, of his cell phone at gunpoint at around 4 am. However, they returned the phone and fled after seeing a police patrol van, the police said.

Investigators said that after the crimes, the suspects returned to Loni, where they parked the car at an isolated spot and left again in a Wagon R car owned by Rizwan.

“Around 7.30 am, they arrived at the Punjabi Bagh crime scene to see what the police were doing. As the police removed the truck and the dead truck driver from the crime spot, Bhola returned to his room while the others went to Loni,” the officer said.

Non-stop police action and reverse route tracking

Inspector Amit Kumar said he was sleeping at home with family members when he got a call around 2.45 am from a senior police officer, directing him to reach Singalpur village, the first crime scene. Until Kumar reached there and began his investigation, neither he nor the other officers had any idea that there would be a series of crimes and it would be a tough and sleepless night for them. By seeing the CCTV footage, the police had established that the suspects had come in a silver Santro.

“It was around 3.30 am, when we were informed that the same silver Santro suspects had robbed and shot dead a truck driver in Punjabi Bagh. We rushed to that spot, scanned the cameras and found the same car and suspects. However, the registration number of the vehicle was not clearly visible. The information about the two other robbers by the same suspects at IP Estate and Moolchand Flyover came to us late in the morning,” said Kumar.

As none of the cameras had captured the registration number of the car, Inspector Kumar and his team members decided to track the reverse route of the vehicle. They started from Singalpur village and the trail ended at Azadpur vegetable market, where the suspects were seen eating omelettes at a roadside stall and talking to each other. The CCTV cameras of the area helped the police identify Bhola, as he was a resident.

By the time the team raided Bhola’s house, he had fled. The team members identified the other suspects as residents of Loni in Ghaziabad. Their hideouts in Loni were also raided but they were missing and their cell phones were switched off.

“Our probe had almost reached a dead end, but we did not lose hope. We did a technical investigation and found that one of the suspects had used a new SIM card while committing the crimes. That cellphone number was still active and its location was found in Garh Mukteshwar,” said Inspector Kumar.

On June 10, the team moved towards the place in Garh Mukteshwar and found that the cellphone’s location was active somewhere in agricultural fields spread across several acres. The team members scanned the entire area and found four hutments and three water pump houses. At one of the pump houses, they noticed some activities and the presence of people.

“We first raided other huts and the pump houses. When nothing was found there, we raided the last pump house and caught the three suspects hiding there around 3 am on July 11. The three were interrogated and they confessed to the crimes. They led us to the place in Baghpat from where the charred Santro car was recovered,” added Kumar.

The three were brought to Delhi and interrogated further to ascertain Bhola’s identity and find the source through which they had procured the firearm. Five days later, the team arrested Sonu Panwar alias Baba Khan, a resident of Baghpat, from whom Rizwan purchased the gun for ₹45,000.

“After the crimes, Rizwan had returned the pistol to Panwar, telling him that the firearm was not working properly, and asked him to replace it with a functional one. We recovered that firearm from Panwar,” added the officer.

The story of the Santro Gang was narrated in the latest Delhi Police podcast episode of "Kissa Khaki Ka".