Gangster who boasted of Dcompany links Bharti entered world of crime by killing father
NOTORIOUS Police said Rajesh Bharti’s gang was based out of Haryana but his interest in luxury cars brought him to Delhi
NEWDELHI: Rajesh Bharti, who was gunned down on Saturday morning by Delhi Police’s special cell, did not hesitate to boast about his alleged links with dons in Dubai while extorting money from his targets.
Names like that of Chhota Shakeel was often thrown in during conversations by Bharti to terrorise his potential targets from whom he extorted hefty payments as protection money, senior police officers said.
Delhi Police is also probing if Bharti was booked earlier under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime ACT(MCOCA), 1999, a law that deals with organised crime and terrorism.
Special commissioner of police and Delhi Police’s chief spokesperson Dependra Pathak said that Bharti’s links with Dubai and Shakeel are yet to ascertained but cannot be ruled out at this stage.
“Bharti and his aide Sanjeet Vidrohi’s contact details are still being verified. We suspect that he was earlier booked under MCOCA. We are verifying his details and his overseas contacts. In many cases of extortion filed against Bharti, complainants had stated that he mentioned his Dubai links,” Pathak said.
The special police commissioner said that Bharti and his gang operated across many states and had managed to hoodwink the police till they were gunned down by the special cell team on Saturday in south Delhi.
Pathak also said that Bharti’s strong links with gangster Manoj Morkheri are also being looked into. Morkheri, once a top criminal of Delhi-ncr, was arrested in 2013 along with two of his associates, Vivek and Praveen, following an encounter which took place in outer Delhi’s Alipur.
In an audio clip, provided by police sources, Bharti reportedly is heard demanding ₹50 lakh from a bookie in Delhi as protection money. However, Hindustan Times could not verify the authenticity of the clip independently. Bharti in the same clip is heard threatening the bookie of dire consequences if his demands were not met.
Police said that Bharti’s Kranti Gang was Haryana-based but what brought him to Delhi was mostly his interest in luxury cars. The gang executed three carjackings, targeting Fortuner SUVS, in three incidents in May this year alone. Two of the above incidents was reported from south Delhi.
Police suspect that Bharti and his men had gathered in Chhatarpur on Saturday morning to plan another such carjacking. A senior police officer said that primary probe had revealed one of the gangster’s aide, who managed to escape from the area, owned a farm house in the area.
“It is suspected that the gang used the farm house as a hideout and had therefore gathered there. The man managed to flee but has been identified as a resident of Lado Sarai. We cannot reveal the identity as the matter is still under probe. He is a property dealer by profession. Of the two cars the accused were travelling in on Saturday, the i20 was stolen,” the officer said on condition of anonymity.
The entire operation lasted for about four minutes and claimed the lives of Bharti, Vidrohi and two of their aides. One of the Bharti’s aides was injured and is under treatment. Deputy commissioner of police (special cell), Pramod Kushwah said eight policemen suffered injuries, six of who were shot. A head constable sustained four bullet injuries, including one in his neck, and is critical. Four other policemen sustained two bullet injuries each in the shootout and are under treatment, the officer said. Number of police personnel involved in shootout 1 pm: The two vehicles are spotted at
KharakChandanhola
Road in Chhatarpur. 1.15pm: The police team intercepts the vehicles but the men try to flee. The police give chase and box them in near SNS Farm Number of rounds fired. Officers said more than 50 rounds was fired by the accused Saturday early hours: Police learn that Rajesh Bharti and his aides will come to Chhatarpur. They will be travelling in Ford Endeavor and Hyundai i20 Number of policemen who sustained gunshot wounds. Investigators suspect that 2 men may have fled the spot 1.30pm:
The men open indiscriminate fire on the police team. Policemen duck and retaliate. Around 150 rounds are fired by both sides. Policemen admitted to the Trauma Centre of AIIMS and one at Fortis hospital. The condition of 3 officers stated to be ‘serious’
A team of 30 police personnel deployed. The police team takes position in the identified area and waits for the accused to arrive. 1.40pm: Firing stops. Four men shot dead, one injured. Eight police persons sustain bullet injuries. Police suspect that two of Bharti’s aides may have escaped. NEW DELHI: Gangster Rajesh Bharti, gunned by the special cell on Saturday morning, had made his foray into the world of crime at the age of 11 with the murder of his own father. In May 1993, Bharti, a resident of Haryana’s Jind, about 100km from the national Capital, had spent a few months at a juvenile detention centre for the crime.
It is unclear what prompted him to stab his own father. But police believe his father had thrashed Bharti for gambling, which prompted him to murder his father.
Saturday’s afternoon shootout, in which he was killed, was not the first time Bharti had an exchange of gunfire with Delhi Police. On March 8, 2011, when the police got a tip-off about Bharti meeting his associates in south Delhi’s Rangpuri Pahadi area near Vasant Kunj, they went to arrest him but faced a volley of bullets.
This was days after Bharti had kidnapped a Delhi university student and taken a ransom of R35 lakh. Bharti and his gang had initially demanded ₹3 crore from the student’s father.
An officer, who has interrogated Bharti, said the man was influenced by gangster-based movies.“there have been cases when Bharti and his men printed pamphlets, naming themselves as Kranti or Bharti gang, and left them at their target’s house after making extortion calls or firing outside their residence or office,” said an officer.
In July last year, police arrested Aman Khadkadi alias Azad, an alleged sharpshooter of Bharti’s gang, for the murder of a property dealer in Dwarka. Outside the property dealer’s office, Bharti and his men and left pamphlets that read ‘ Rajesh Bharti’. Aman told police during interrogation that they got this idea from a Hindi movie they were watching at a hotel in Uttarakhand.
Police say Bharti’s gang started as carjackers along roads connecting Delhi and Haryana and later graduated to kidnapping for ransom and extortion.
“From excerpts of the extortion call that was intercepted by police, it is clear that Bharti had started dropping names of gangsters in the D Company. He boasted about his contacts with Chhota Shakeel, who is Dawood Ibrahim’s right hand man. He even threatened his victims to kill them outside India. Prima facie, we do not have any evidence to say that he has links with D Company,” the officer said.
Police believe Bharti was getting desperate in the last few months and was trying to spread his reign of terror in Delhi and become bigger than jailed gangster Neeraj Bawana.
“In Delhi, he has only carjacking and kidnapping cases but in the last few months, he had been making extortion calls to many Delhi traders and bookies. With Bawana in jail and another absconding gangster Jitender Gogia staying away from Delhi, he was hoping to strike it big. He was active in areas such as Dwarka and Najafgarh,” said an officer.