Delhi encounter: How the Sigma & Company gang gained notoriety

The Sigma & Company gang gained notoriety after murdering a Brahmarshi Sena chief, claiming justice for alleged crimes; 4 members were later killed by police.

NEW DELHI: The Sigma & Company gang gained widespread notoriety on September 26 after gunning down a former chief of the Brahmarshi Sena at his residence in Bihar’s Dumra and then issuing a note, titled “Nyaya, Sewa, Sahyog (justice, service, cooperation)”, stating “eight crimes” committed by the victim that warranted his murder, police said. They also called up journalists and “boasted” about how they defeated a casteist and corrupt leader, and were upholding justice, they said.

Police and forensics officials at the site of the encounter on Thursday. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

Since July, they are suspected to be responsible for at least five murders, police said, adding that the gang was relatively smaller to similar operators and it had around 12 members. While they usually escaped to Nepal or border areas after a crime, the murder of the Sena chief raised the heat, with both the Bihar and Delhi Police tracking them.

On Thursday, four members Ranjan Pathak (25), Bimlesh Mahto (25), Manish Pathak (33) and Aman Thakur (21), were gunned down by a team of the Delhi and Bihar Police at Bahadur Shah Marg in Rohini.

A senior police officer with the Delhi Police Crime Branch said the gang comprised of “budding” criminals, who pretended to be social heroes on media platforms, while taking contracts and killing their targets.

Detailing the Sena chief’s murder, police said victim Ram Manohar Sharma alias Ganesh Sharma (40), was washing his car when two men on a bike approached him and shot him dead at point-blank range.

A second officer said, “Sharma is well known in the town and headed the local caste-based group. He also owned a diagnostics centre. The gang not only shot him dead but also boasted about their crime on social media and to journalists. Locals were enraged.”

A note released hours after Sharma’s murder was undersigned by “Bharti- Kapoor Jha - BA (H) LLB” delivered via “Rahul Jha - Ranjan Pathak” . Jha is the gang leader and is still on the run, police said. Investigators said Jha started the gang earlier this year to tackle some rivals in business and realty. Police said Jha is a “white-collar” criminal.

The note, accessed by HT, termed Sharma a “betrayer”, “gaddar” (traitor), “taanashah” (dictator), “beimaan” (dishonest), “taskar” (smuggler), “charitraheen” (immoral), “mahapatit” (great sinner), and “dabangai” (arrogance) as he betrayed a friend, assaulted a poor man and sent him to jail on false charges, smuggled drugs, and grabbed land.

“Our fight is not against any caste or community. We respect everyone and the law. However, the current behaviour of the bureaucrats and police, their policy of distorting the truth and ruining the lives of the poor and the weak, has led us to take this step. Today, a righteous man who was honest, loyal, and responsible to society has had to make his life abnormal against injustice. Some casteist and corrupt police officers of the Bihar Police are responsible for this,” the note read.

The gang then gave its “verdict” and said that “the culprit is given the death penalty”. They noted that “Dirty politics, pressure from casteist groups and anti-social elements, liquor dealers, and casteist and corrupt police officers have made our lives hell.”

The murders

According to details shared by the police, the gang has been involved in multiple murders and extortion cases over the past three months.

On July 18, Ranjan and his associates shot dead one Aditya Kumar.

On August 21, they killed one Madan Kumar Kushwaha in Dumra, on a contract. The victim was shot five times near a railway crossing.

On September 17, Aman Thakur killed one Guddu Jha and fired at his friend, on a contract, in Sheohar.

On September 26, they killed Ganesh Sharma by shooting at him three times, on a contract.

On September 29, the gang killed a bank customer service point operator, Shravan Yadav, inside a shop on a contract for ₹1.7 lakh.