From police vans to courts, no place off-limit for gangs in Delhi

According to Delhi Police records, there are at least eight prominent gangs across Delhi at war with each other to establish supremacy in their respective areas

New Delhi From courtrooms to prison cells, police vans to hospitals, no setting is off-limits for gangsters as they go about settling scores in the national capital.

An ambulance at the Rohini court after a shootout in which gangster Jeetender Gogi was killed. (PTI)

According to Delhi Police records, there are at least 8-10 prominent gangs -- involved in extortions, land grabbing, murder, among others -- across the city that are at war with each other to establish supremacy in their respective areas.

Records show that before Jitender Maan alias Gogi, and Sunil Maan alias Tillu Tajpuria, started gang wars on the city’s streets, two other gangs – one led by Neeraj Bawana and Nitu Dabodia – were engaged in similar fights.

Among the several murders as a result of this gang rivalry was the killing of two gang leaders of the Dabodia gang – Paras Vikram and Pradeep Bhola -- by Bawana while they were heading to Tihar prison in a jail van after attending a court hearing in August 2015.

Just months later, in December 2015, two other gangs in northeast Delhi -- one led by gangster Krishen Pehalwan, alias Cheenu Pehalwan, and another by Abdul Nasser – had a similar shootout inside the Karkardooma court complex. Pehalwan survived the attack but a police constable, who was escorting him in court, had died.

Police records show that one of Delhi’s first and better-known gangsters, Pehalwan was from Dichaon, a village in Najafgarh. Pehalwan, who later turned a small-time politician and is currently in jail, has accused police of framing him in false cases in the past.

During the 1990s, Pehalwan’s gang was engaged in a turf war with another gang led by his friend-turned-foe Anoop Balraj, from the neighbouring village of Mitraon, in which about a dozen lives were lost.

Later, Pehalwan’s gang had also had a bitter rivalry with another gang, led by Udaiveer Kala, over a property dispute. Police have in the past said that Kala’s father was allegedly murdered by Pehalwan’s gang in 2007.

Police officials said the rivalry ended eight years later with the murder of Pehalwan’s brother, Bharat Singh, who was an MLA at the time, at a farmhouse in Najafgarh.

Officers in the crime branch said that some of the gangs that are at still at war across the city include those led by Manjeet Mahal (currently in jail) and Kapil Sangwan; Cheenu Pehalwan (currently in jail) and Abdul Naseer; Hashim Baba (currently in jail) and Ravi Gangwal (currently in jail).

Former Delhi police officer, LN Rao, who was the DCP of the special cell until his retirement in 2015, said police must crack down on the city’s gangsters.

”Police must gather evidence and use laws like MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act) against all gangsters who are running organised crime syndicates. Using these laws will make it difficult for them to come out on bail easily. Police have to act sternly against such men,” he said.