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Shah Rukh, Delhi criminals seem to have an obsession with the star name
From alleged drug smugglers to arms dealers, terrorists to snatchers and contract killers, many criminals arrested in Delhi have an alias of Shah Rukh – synonymous with the name of Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan.
What’s in a name? A lot, if you happen to share yours with one of the country’s top actor.
Sift through the Delhi Police’s crime files. From alleged drug smugglers to arms dealers, terrorists to snatchers and even contract killers, many criminals arrested in Delhi choose their alias as Shah Rukh – eponymous with the name of Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan. These aliases have since stuck and have been mentioned next to their names in the crime dossier.
Sample this coincidence: all three top operatives and founding members of the banned terror group Indian Mujahideen — Iqbal, Riyaz and Yasin Bhatkal — used the alias Shah Rukh. In police dossiers, while one ‘Shah Rukh’ (Yasin Bhatkal) has already been arrested, the other two remain on the most wanted list. When Bhatkal was arrested in 2009 by the West Bengal Police for carrying fake currency, he found his way out by claiming to be Malda resident Shah Rukh.
In March 2017, police arrested a Srinagar resident ‘Shah Rukh’ from Delhi University’s north campus. The 32-year-old was arrested for allegedly smuggling over 1,000 kilograms of hashish in 6 months. After the arrest, ‘Shah Rukh’ confessed that his real name was Shabir Ahmed Rather and he was a trader from Kashmir. Rather told investigators he decided to change his name after he was arrested by the J&K Police in 2004 for allegedly carrying drugs.
“We were surprised to find out that even a majority of his friends in the drug cartel thought his real name was Shah Rukh,” said an officer who interrogated him.
Shabbo, one of the key members of East Delhi’s Chennu Pehalwan gang — infamous for their involvements in cases of murder, extortion and landgrabbing — had also changed his name to Shah Rukh.
Shah Rukhs aren’t only criminals, there are con-men too. In 2016, police busted two conmen who called themselves the ‘Baraati gang.’ They crashed weddings to steal expensive jewellery and cell phones. Until their arrest in March 2016, the gang had struck at over 30 wedding parties. One of them, 22-year-old Javed, had changed his name to Shah Rukh. He even dressed like the actor and gatecrashed weddings for a living. When this Shah Rukh was arrested, police recovered 107 cellphones, 66 mobile batteries, 63 chargers, 84 earphones and 250 gm gold from him. Introducing himself as Shah Rukh, he blended in the crowd, hung around mostly in the bar and preyed on his victims.
In May 2013, the police in west Delhi arrested three highway robbers for robbing a truck carrying medicines worth over ₹2 crore. One of them Bunty, 19, an expert at driving vehicles, told police he had changed his name to Shah Rukh and joined the gang. He said he did this because he “wanted to earn money and go to Mumbai” like his idol Shah Rukh Khan who, too, had shifted from Delhi to Mumbai.
A senior police officer, who has worked with the Delhi Police’s crime branch, says criminals change their name to avoid being dragged into many cases. The officer said a new name gives them a new identity. “Most criminals have fake names. In north India, Pehalwan is also a name attached to most criminals. There have been many cases of criminals adopting the actor Shah Rukh Khan’s name, but you cannot call this a trend. It has a lot to do with the actor’s onscreen roles. Another common nickname most young criminals adopt is Sanju, which is actor Sanjay Dutt’s nickname. We also routinely have come across many criminals who copy his hairstyle and dressing sense.”
