After shootout: New faces added to most-wanted list
NEWDELHI: A day after two notorious gangsters — Rajesh Bharti and Sanjeet Vidrohi — were killed in a shoot out in Chhatarpur, Delhi Police has started updating its most-wanted list by including up-and-coming gang lords who are taking over the territories and businesses ceded by those who have been neutralised, according to officers familiar with the development.
Two people who have already been added to the list are Sanjay Lakra, 45, and Ashok Pradhan, 32. They have emerged as the police’s top priorities for their involvement in murder, extortion, robbery and carjacking, among other organised crimes, the officers added.
Lakra, a resident of Mundka in outer Delhi, has been absconding for the last 12 years. Police believe he runs the Dariyapur gang after the noted gangster Sonu Dariyapur was arrested in an operation in Narela last September . Lakra carried a reward of ~2 lakh.
Ashok Pradhan, alias Shoki, was a member of the dreaded Nitu Dabodia gang, which operated in outer Delhi, south-west Delhi and parts of Haryana. Till five years ago, Dabodia and Neeraj Bawana were the two most wanted men in Delhi. In 2013, Dabodia was killed in a police encounter. Bawana was arrested
Mundka Road.
After Dabodia’s death, Pradhan has been running his gang, police said. He carries a reward of ~1 lakh. “We are on the lookout for all gangsters but the new names are the ones whom we believe must be monitored and arrested soon. Pradhan may want to be the No 1 gangster in Delhi, towering over all other rivals, because Bawana is in jail and Bharti has now been killed. He could try to take their place,” said a crime branch officer on the condition of anonymity.
Explaining the addition of these names, another senior police officer, said: “This is a not a hit list. It is a list of men who should be arrested at the earliest. We group the names depending on how desperate and active those criminals are.” in 2015 from