Jailed gangster’s partner killed at Dwarka residence

NEWDELHI: The live-in partner of a jailed ‘gangster’ was gunned down by two men at her home in Pochanpur village near west Delhi’s Dwarka on Monday morning. The police suspect that the murder was a fallout of an ongoing gang war.

Police said the men arrived on a motorcycle, barged in through the ajar doors of the house and emptied at least half-a-dozen bullets into the woman, Kamlesh Singh, who was seated on the sofa. “The killers were done in less than 30 seconds,” Anto Alphonse, deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka), said.

Forty-five-year-old Kamlesh was in a live-in relationship with Rajiv alias Monu, who has been in jail for the last six months, the DCP said. Kamlesh is survived by her 22-year-old daughter, now married, and 18-year-old son, who aspired to be a doctor.

Monu is in jail for allegedly gunning down his friend-turnedfoe Sandeep alias Mental and another rival in Dwarka on May 2. “Members of Mental’s gang are the main suspects in Kamlash’s murder,” the DCP said.

The investigators are particularly focusing on the role of Mental’s friend Sandeep alias Dhillu, an alleged criminal who had used chilli powder to escape police custody in February.

Kamlesh herself was in jail in the 2000s. According to an investigator, she was an accused in her husband’s murder in 2004. “The husband’s body was found a few days after he went missing,” the investigator said.

Kamlesh’s mother Suresh said her daughter was living in fear ever since Monu and Mental fell out over a building they had constructed in Pochanpur village in Dwarka’s Sector 23. “She would frequently receive threats over phone. The four CCTV cameras she installed outside her house are a testimony to it,” she said.

The DCP said Kamlesh had approached court seeking police protection after Monu was arrested. “It granted her protection till the time of filing of the charge sheet — that was done a few weeks ago. But we continued to provide her security whenever she left home,” the DCP said.

The officer said a beat officer had visited Kamlesh’s home ataround 8pm Sunday, almost 14 hours before the murder.

The killers, one of whom had a helmet on, arrived outside Kamlesh’s home around 10am. Kamlesh and her domestic help were at home while her son was away for tuitions.

The help is the sole eyewitness to the murder. “She has been working for Kamlesh for at least five years,” an investigator said.

Local shopkeeper Ajeet said, “I heard gunshots and came out of my shop to see two men on a motorcycle speeding away. Soon, the domestic help came out of the house screaming. ” But, like most other residents, he, too, chose to not get involved.

The DCP said he CCTV cameras outside Kamlesh’s house had captured the motorcycle and the suspected killers, but investigators are yet to establish their identity.