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NIA raids in 3 states against narco-terror
In a statement, NIA said the raids were carried out “to dismantle and disrupt the emerging nexus between terrorists, gangsters and drug smugglers/traffickers based in India and abroad”.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday launched a crackdown on what it termed “organized terror gangs” that are involved in large scale criminal activities such as smuggling of arms and weapons, narco-terrorism, targeted killings, extortion, and kidnappings in North India and have links with similar entities in other countries including Pakistan, people familiar with the development said.
The agency raided at least 50 locations in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) including residences, hideouts, prisons and places of operations belonging to gangsters Goldy Brar (currently hiding in Canada) and Lawrence Bishnoi — the two are believed to be behind the killing of singer Sidhu Moosewala on May 29 — Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, Varinder Pratap alias Kala Rana, Kala Jathedi, Vikram Brar, Gaurav Patyal alias Lucky Patyal (who was earlier arrested in Armenia), Neeraj Bawana, Koushal Chaudhary, Tillu Tajpuria, Amit Dagar, Deepak Kumar alias Tinu, Sandeep alias Bandar, Umesh alias Kala, Irfan alias Cheenu Pahalwan, Ashim alias Hashim Baba, and Sachin Bhanja.
In a statement, NIA said the raids were carried out “to dismantle and disrupt the emerging nexus between terrorists, gangsters and drug smugglers/traffickers based in India and abroad”.
The federal agency is looking at a “larger conspiracy” as these smalltime gangs have morphed into large organized syndicates and specialize in high-profile contract killings, smuggling of drugs from Pakistan and other countries, extortion, possess dangerous automatic weapons such as AK47s and grenades, and easily run their operations from inside the prisons, as was once seen in 90s in Mumbai, when the underworld gangs sparred with each other, said an officer at the agency who didn’t want to be named.
Union home minister Amit Shah directed to crackdown on these gangs before they turn into a major headache for the agencies after which the Delhi police registered cases against some of them last month.
Since initial investigations suggested that some gangs could have links with Pakistan-based outfits and individuals connected with Pakistani spy agency ISI, and could be used to push IEDs, drugs and weapons in Punjab, NIA was brought in, said a second officer, who also requested anonymity.
“Recent sensational crimes and extortion calls by criminal syndicates and gangsters to businessmen, professionals including doctors etc, created a widespread scare among the people. These gangs were using cyberspace to publicize these crimes to create terror among the public at large. The NIA investigations also revealed that such criminal acts were not isolated local incidents but that there was a deep rooted conspiracy involving terrorists, gangsters and drug smuggling cartels and networks, who were operating from both within and outside the country,” NIA added in its statement.
The agency said that many gangsters have fled India and now operate from “foreign countries including Pakistan, Canada, Malaysia, Australia etc”.
In some cases already under investigation by the NIA — such as killing of Shaurya Chakra Awardee Comrade Balwinder Singh in Punjab (October 2020) — it has been revealed that “most of these conspiracies were being hatched from inside jails of different states and were being executed by an organized network of operatives based abroad”, NIA’s statement said.
“Preliminary Investigations have revealed that these gangs were carrying out targeted killings, including those of prominent people, to terrorize the general public to extort money for running and promoting their criminal syndicates and activities. These gangs were also raising funds to carry out such criminal activities through smuggling of drugs and weapons.”
For instance, the Lawrence Bishnoi gang threatened actor Salman Khan and his father Salim Khan in July. There have been reports of threats given to the Kabbadi players and their managers in Haryana and Punjab. “Like ‘D’ Company (underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s organisation), these north-India based gangsters were trying to control the film, music industries and businessmen and industrialists,” said a second NIA officer who didn’t want to be named.
NIA’s raids spanned Fazilka, Fairdkot, Mukhtsar Sahab, Moga, Taran Tarn, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, and Mohali in Punjab; East Gurugram, Bhiwani, Yamuna Nagar, Sonepat and Jhajjar in Haryana; Hanumangarh and Ganganagar in Rajasthan; and Dwarka, Outer North, North West, North East and Shahdara districts in Delhi NCR.
In Punjab the focus of the raids was in the south Malwa region’s four districts, Faridkot, Muktsar, Moga and Fazilka, said to be home to the most dreaded gangsters of the state.
NIA teams started simultaneous raids from 5 am in morning with the help of Punjab police .
A 12-member team raided the house of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi at his village Dutara Wali in Fazilka district’s Abohar. Initially, his parents did not open the door for NIA and kept them standing outside for two hours. The door was opened and NIA was allowed to enter only after local police and village panchayat members intervened.
Lawrence is one of the main conspirators in Moosewala’s murder and is presently in the custody of the Mohali police.
Another team targeted Canada-based gangster Satenderjeet Singh alias Goldy Brar’s residence on Kotkapura Road in Muktsar district.
In Delhi, police officers said they provided assistance to NIA during the raid at the houses of Delhi gangsters such as Neeraj Bawana, Sunil Maan alias Tillu Tajpuriya, Hashim Baba, and Irfan Chennu. While all the four men are in Delhi’s Tihar jail, their accomplices outside continue to run their activities. Tajpuriya and Bawana, had planned and executed the murder of their rival gangster, Jitender Gogi inside a court room in Rohini last year.
“The NIA had sought assistance of the local police. At each spot, we provided two assistant commissioners of police, inspectors, sub inspectors and many other junior staff. There was no law-and-order problem during the raid at their houses in Bawana, Tajpur and Shahadra,” said a Delhi police officer who asked not to be named.
A second police officer added: “These Delhi gangsters are no longer just city gangsters. They have merged with gangs from Punjab and Haryana.”
A NIA spokesperson said six pistols, one revolver and one shotgun were seized during the raids apart from drugs, cash, incriminating documents, digital devices, details of benami properties, and extortion letters.
In Gurugram, NIA along with Haryana special task force carried out three raids at the residence of gangsters Kaushal Chaudhary, his close aide Amit Dagar and Sandeep alias Bandar in Naharpur Rupa village.
Sumit Kuhar, STF superintendent of police, said property documents and some IDs were recovered during the raids. “We did not recover any weapons from their houses but we have recovered weapons from the house of gangster Kala Rana in Yamunanagar,” he said.
“Further investigations will continue to dismantle these terror networks as well as their funding and support infrastructure,” NIA said in its statement
(with inputs from Parteek Singh Mahal, Gaurav Sagar Bhaskar and Leena Dhankhar)
