Delhi: Former national wrestler, now a gangster, held after shootout in Bawana

Police said the suspect, Parveen Tyagi, who carried a reward of ₹1 lakh for his arrest and was wanted in at least five criminal cases, is a former wrestler who won bronze in the 2007 junior national championship

New Delhi: The city police on Wednesday arrested a 32-year-old alleged hitman of the Tillu Tajpuria gang after a shootout in Bawana area of outer Delhi.

Police said that Tyagi, a resident of northwest Delhi’s Holambi Kalan, came out on bail in August 2019. (Picture for representation only)

Police said the suspect, Parveen Tyagi, who carried a reward of ₹1 lakh for his arrest and was wanted in at least five criminal cases, is a former wrestler who won bronze in the 2007 junior national championship.

“He had an accident which resulted in a bone fracture and cut short his wrestling career. He then came in contact with a man named Sweekar Luthra, who ran a counterfeit coins racket in the NCR region. Later he joined his childhood friend Parvesh Khera’s criminal gang and indulged in extortion. Khera’s gang later joined hands with the Tillu Tajpuria gang against their common enemy, Jitender Gogi,” said Rajiv Ranjan, deputy commissioner of police(special cell).

The rivalry between the Gogi and Tillu gangs had made headlines on September 24 , when the former was shot dead by two gunmen inside the Rohini court during his bail hearing. The gunmen were allegedly hired to kill Gogi by Sunil Maan, alias Tillu Tajpuria. In the last decade, at least two dozen lives have been lost in the rivalry between the two gangs. The two gangs are involved in cases of heinous crimes such as murder, robbery, extortion, land grabbing. To be sure, police have not linked Tyagi to Gogi’s murder.

DCP Ranjan said police had been on the lookout for Tyagi for the past one year. “Our team identified a number of his suspected hideouts in Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan and conducted numerous raids. He had a narrow escape on multiple occasions. At around 9am on Wednesday, police received specific information that he would pass through Khera-Bawana road, adjoining Khera Canal bridge,” said DCP Ranjan.

The officer said that at around 11.20am, police spotted Tyagi on a black motorcycle and signalled him to stop, but he instead fired 3-4 bullets. “One bullet also hit the bullet-proof vest of a head constable. Our team fired in self defence and a bullet hit him on his leg,” said DCP Ranjan, adding that Tyagi was arrested from the spot.

Police said that Tyagi, a resident of northwest Delhi’s Holambi Kalan, came out on bail in August 2019. He was earlier arrested for the murder of his rival, Babloo Khera, in Ashok Vihar in July 2019.