Woman who helped murder man in Burger King shootout arrested: Delhi Police

Delhi Police arrested 19-year-old Annu Dhankar for aiding a gang in the murder of Aman Joon at a Burger King in June. She was caught near the Indo-Nepal border.

The Delhi Police on Friday arrested a 19-year-old woman who allegedly helped the Himanshu Bhau gang murder a 26-year-old man in a shootout in a Burger King outlet in Rajouri Garden, west Delhi on June 18, officers said. The woman, Annu Dhankar, was arrested from the Indo-Nepal border on Friday afternoon, police added.

19-year-old Annu Dhankar. (HT Photo)

Dhankar had lured the victim, 26-year-old Aman Joon, a suspected member of the Ashok Pradhan gang, to the Burger King outlet on the pretext of a date and kept him occupied until two assailants arrived and gunned him down. More than 50 customers and 10 staffers were present inside the eatery when the assailants fired at least 25 bullets to kill Joon.

“During investigation, Dhankar’s role emerged as a prime accused who lured Joon to meet her through social media. On June 18, she called Joon to meet her and passed on this information to Bhau. On her information, the assailants were sent to the restaurant to eliminate Joon,” said Amit Kaushik, deputy commissioner of police (special cell).

Bhau, who is a fugitive, had claimed responsibility for the murder on social media, saying that the victim was involved in the 2020 murder of their associate Shakti Dad. Both assailants were killed in a police encounter in Sonepat in July, but Dhankar eluded authorities. She was last seen in CCTV footage at the Katra railway station a day after the murder, said police.

“We learnt that Dhankar was hiding at a PG accommodation in Kota for the past four months. She is only 19 years old and looks like a student. It was easy for her to hide and nobody suspected anything since there are hundreds of students there,” said a second officer.

“On Thursday, we received a tip that Dhankar was spotted travelling in a bus from Kota. From Kota she travelled to Lucknow and then towards Lakhimpur Kheri. We were told that she is nearing the Indo-Nepal border. A team immediately went there and caught her near the border,” said DCP Kaushik.

Police said that Dhankar came on their radar after a firing incident at a sweets shop in Sonipat in January. Police said she fled from Rohtak after the incident and shifted to Delhi. In June, while she was allegedly talking to Joon, she was also in touch with another man who’s the cousin of another rival gangster, said police.

“The man’s name came up when we checked Dhankar’s call records in June. When we questioned him, he told us she had called him to a cafe in Mukherjee Nagar earlier but he did not go because of some personal work. He didn’t know she was from a rival gang,” a police officer told HT.

After Joon’s murder, police said Dhankar went back to her PG room in Mukherjee Nagar and collected her belongings. “She then went to ISBT-Kashmere Gate and took a bus to Chandigarh. From there, she reached Katra via Amritsar. In Katra she stayed at a guest house but was told by Bhau to leave as police were onto her. She then reached Jalandhar via train and later went to Haridwar via bus. She stayed there for three-four days and then went to Kota,” said the officer.

DCP Kaushik said she stayed in Talwandi for the next four months. “She was in contact with Bhau and he would regularly send her money through a shop vendor/money exchanger. On Tuesday, she was told to vacate the PG. He told her that she can come to the USA from Dubai. While she was waiting to cross the border (on the instructions of Bhau), we caught her in Lakhimpur,” he said.

Police said she told them that Bhau and his associate Sahil Ritolia had promised to arrange a passport, visa and other documents for immigration to USA in Nepal.