Two gangsters held for firing at Punjab ex-MLA’s house in Delhi

The Delhi Police has arrested two gangsters for firing bullets at the west Delhi house of former Punjab legislator Deep Malhotra late last week, officers aware of the matter said on Friday

The Delhi Police has arrested two gangsters for firing bullets at the west Delhi house of former Punjab legislator Deep Malhotra late last week, officers aware of the matter said on Friday.

The two arrested gangsters at Crime Branch office in Delhi’s RK Puram on Friday. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

The police identified the accused as Akaash Kassa, 23, and Nitesh Sinti, 19, and said that they are members of the Lawrence Bishnoi-Goldy Brar gang.

Special commissioner of police (crime branch) Ravindra Singh Yadav said, “The two suspects were asked to carry out the shooting to prove their loyalty to the Bishnoi-Brar gang. They were working on the promise of being included as permanent members of the gang if they were able to successfully carry out a few such tasks.”

Giving details of the case, police said Kassa and Sinti fired at the gate of Malhotra’s Punjabi Bagh residence on Sunday evening. Four empty cartridges were later found at the spot, but no one was hurt, police said.

Subsequently, police registered a case under the Arms Act at Punjabi Bagh police station, and several teams, including the district police, the special cell and the crime branch, began investigating the crime.

“It was important to send a message to the criminals that Delhi isn’t a city where they would get away with threats,” said Yadav.

During the probe, investigators learnt that Malhotra had been receiving extortion messages on his WhatsApp account in the form of voice threats, but he had been ignoring them. “In the past, two of his liquor shops in Punjab were burnt by members of the Bishnoi-Brar gang, and they are being investigated by the Punjab Police,” said Yadav.

The latest incident too was an attempt to scare Malhotra into paying extortion money, police said. “The gangsters hired Kassa and Sinti. Kassa had met members of the gang while he was lodged in a Haryana jail,” said Amit Goel, deputy commissioner of police (crime branch).

Kassa and Sinti knew nothing of the extortion demand, the extortion amount demanded, or any specifics of the crime until a week before the firing happened, Goel said. The two men had not even met each

After carrying out the shooting, the two men were told to change auto-rickshaws at least three times, and then use buses and the Metro to get away. “The gangsters wanted to make it difficult for the police to use CCTV footage to track down the suspects,” Goel said.

However, technical and manual surveillance helped identify and nab the two suspects from different locations in Haryana over Wednesday and Thursday. The police said that recoveries from them included a stolen motorcycle, two guns and seven bullets.

“Kassa and Sinti are among several youngsters aged between 15 and 25 years from Haryana and Rajasthan, who are being hired by Bishnoi and Brar to join their gangs. They are being hired by the lure of being members of these notorious gangs, but the foot soldiers are the ones getting caught, while the big gangsters are enjoying the proceeds of these crimes,” said Yadav.