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Jailed gangster and gang war could be behind murder of man who was shot at 50 times in Delhi
New Delhi:
New Delhi:
An alleged gangster lodged in jail could be behind the murder of a man on whom at least 50 bullets were fired in a possible case of “gang war” in outer Delhi’s Kanjhawala on Wednesday night, police said based on initial probe.
A senior police officer, who didn’t want to be identified, said two suspects had been identified and their homes were raided but they remain on the run. “Our probe so far has revealed the killers were working at the behest of Deepak Titar, a gangster who has been in jail since 2016,” said the officer.
The murdered man, Anchil Thakur—an accused in an attempt to murder case —was gunned down when he was driving his black Scorpio car in Kanjhawala’s Ladpur village around 9.45 pm on Wednesday.
Soon after the murder, SD Mishra, deputy commissioner of police (Rohini), had said at least 50 rounds were fired on Thakur’s sports utility vehicle (SUV) by the attackers who had arrived in another car.
Another officer said that at least 16 bullets hit Thakur and he died on the spot. The police had found the killers had driven away towards Haryana after the murder.
While investigators said they were yet to ascertain the reason behind the rivalry between Thakur and Titar, they said Thakur would keep in touch with criminal gangs of outer Delhi.
Thakur’s Facebook profile contained multiple images of him either posing with guns or simply sharing images of firearms – the oldest of those images being posted way back in 2014 and the latest of them in June 2017.
Police said Thakur was released on bail last month. “He had been jailed in an attempt-to-murder case registered against him in Kanjhawala in April last year,” said another officer.
In that case, which took place in Karala village on April 4, Thakur and two others had allegedly intercepted a businessman’s Mahindra XUV car and pressured him to back off from his partnership in a motorcycle spare parts business. “Thakur had then gone on to fire two rounds at me, one of which hit my thigh,” the businessman in that case had alleged in his police statement back then.
Thakur and the two other suspects were arrested and jailed after being booked for attempt to murder.
On Wednesday night, Thakur was driving the same Scorpio that he had used while allegedly attempting on that businessman’s life months earlier.
A resident of Karal village, Thakur claimed on his Facebook profile that he had studied in Delhi University colleges and that he was “sports president” of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the students’ wing of RSS.
But, Siddharth Yadav, ABVP state secretary, said Thakur was not a member of their organisation. “We do not have any such post of ‘sports president’ in our organisation. The deceased was not a member of ABVP,” said Yadav.
