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5 hitmen, part of Lawrence Bishnoi gang, arrested in north Delhi
New Delhi Delhi Police on Friday arrested five hitmen, who are allegedly part of an interstate syndicate led by jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and his key confidant Sandeep alias Kala Jatheri, from near north Delhi and recovered four pistols, a revolver and 70 cartridges from their possession
New Delhi Delhi Police on Friday arrested five hitmen, who are allegedly part of an interstate syndicate led by jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and his key confidant Sandeep alias Kala Jatheri, from near north Delhi and recovered four pistols, a revolver and 70 cartridges from their possession.
Bishnoi is lodged in Ajmer jail while Jatheri, who fled from Haryana Police’s custody following a gunfight last year and carries a ₹7 lakh reward on his arrest, is controlling the gang’s operations in Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab and Uttarakhand, police said.
“The arrested men are ‘guns-for-hire’ (hired shooters) and were wanted for a series of gruesome crimes including a triple- and a double-murder at two places in Haryana last year. They were acting as a bridge between Bishnoi-Jatheri and another wanted gangster from Gurugram, Sube Gurjar, who also carries ₹7 lakh reward on his arrest,” said deputy commissioner of police (counter intelligence wing of special cell) Manishi Chandra.
DCP Chandra said that the five were caught early Friday morning from near Chandgi Ram Akhara in north Delhi, following multiple operations that his teams had been conducting in five cities in four states – Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand – using its “Trace-Track-Monitor” capabilities.
Police identified the five as Kapil Nehra (23), Yashpal alias Sarpanch (28), Rajeev alias Raju Basai (25), Rahul Mehalawat (23), and Gagandeep alias Guni (35). While Nehra and Gagandeep hail from Haryana’s Rohtak and Punjab’s Barnala respectively, the rest are from Gurugram.
“They all have been found involved in more than a dozen cases of murder, attempt to murder, contract killing, extortion and shootouts with police in Delhi and the four states,” said Chandra.
About the operation against the syndicate, DCP Chandra said that after escaping from Haryana police custody in February last year, Jatheri had been working to expand his network in Delhi and its adjoining states. As some most wanted criminals were arrested in the last one year, many criminals from the neighbouring states, including Bishnoi and Jatheri, have been trying to fill the void of Delhi’s crime world, the officer said.
“While Bishnoi himself is in jail, he roped in Jatheri to expand the syndicate’s footprints in Delhi. Jatheri is closely assisted by one Kala Rana, who is from Bishnoi’s gang and is suspected to be hiding in a southeast Asian country. This gang has committed several firing and extortion incidents in Delhi-NCR in the last eight-nine months,” said an officer, who did not want to be named.
Even as the arrested men are being questioned regarding their visit to the capital, on account of the recovery of arms and ammunition, Delhi Police officers suspect that they were planning “something big”.
According to police, on August 20, the arrested men and their associates had allegedly killed three rival gang members in Gurugram. In a case of mistaken identity in February this year, they had allegedly killed two men in Rohtak. They had also committed contract killings on the directions of Bishnoi and his Canada-based aide Goldy Brar, said the DCP.
Police said that at least half a dozen similar firings for extortion were reported from other areas in southwest Delhi last year. In most of the cases, the attackers threw “threat slips” with the names of their gangs, police said.
