Gadoli encounter: Mumbai cops to probe in Gurgaon

A ten-member team of Mumbai police’s special investigation team (SIT) reached Gurgaon on Tuesday evening in connection with the ongoing probe into the alleged encounter of gangster Sandeep Gadoli.

A ten-member team of Mumbai police’s special investigation team (SIT) reached Gurgaon on Tuesday evening in connection with the ongoing probe into the alleged encounter of gangster Sandeep Gadoli.

Gangster Sandeep Gadoli was killed in an encounter at a hotel in Andheri East on February 7. The police had announced a reward of Rs 1.25 lakh to anyone giving information about Gadoli, who was wanted in 36 cases, including murder and extortion.(HT File)

The SIT may question Manoj Binder, brother of Gadoli’s rival gangster Binder Gujjar. Binder has been named as one of the accused in the FIR registered against eight persons, including five Gurgaon police officials, by SIT in Mumbai.

The team is also likely to arrest slain Gadoli’s girlfriend Divya Pahuja, who is one of the accused in the fake encounter case.

A metropolitan magistrate’s court in Mumbai will hear SIT’s appeal to issue a non-bailable warrant against the accused officials of the Gurgaon police on Wednesday.

According to sources, from Manoj’s call records, SIT found that he was in touch with one of the cops in the Gurgaon police team on the day of the encounter.

“A team of SIT reached Gurgaon on Tuesday evening for further investigation,” said an official with the SIT.

The Mumbai and Gurgaon police have been contesting each other’s claims over the authenticity of the encounter that killed gangster Sandeep Gadoli at a hotel in Andheri East on February 7. The Gurgaon police officials maintain that they killed him in retaliatory fire. The Mumbai police, based on the family’s claim, allege that the encounter was staged.

Gadoli’s family had alleged that Gadoli was killed by the Gurgaon police at the behest of Binder Gujjar. Among 36 odd cases against him, Gadoli was accused of killing Binder Gujjar’s driver in October 2015. His brother Kuldeep Singh had approached the Bombay high court claiming that the encounter was “fake” and demanded that all eight Haryana policemen, involved in the incident, be booked for murder.

Last week, the SIT added the murder charge to the first information against the Gurgaon police officers involved in the operation. A few days later, on May 27, the SIT told the Supreme Court that five policemen from Gurgaon staged the fake encounter.

Gurgaon police’s top cops, including commissioner of police Navdeep Singh Virk, have remained tight-lipped after the FIR over the ‘fake’ encounter was lodged by the Mumbai police.