MEET DELHI GANGSTER WHO IMPRESSED CHHOTA SHAKEEL

It takes misplaced courage to dream of a career as a gangster. And the perseverance to call up Chhota Shakeel repeatedly till the underworld don is forced to pick up the phone and say: Impressive!

But 21-year-old Junaid Chaudhary’s efforts to establish himself as Delhi’s top gangster may have ended after his arrest on June 7 for allegedly planning to assassinate Pakistan-born Canadian writer Tarek Fateh and jailed underworld don Chhota Rajan.

“Junaid phoned Shakeel countless times and sent numerous WhatsApp messages over nearly three months before the gangster responded and gave him an assignment,” an investigator in Delhi Police’s special cell told HT. However, investigators are yet to corroborate Junaid’s claim.

Investigators described Junaid, a Class 9 dropout and an average built youth standing at 5 feet 7 inches, as “clever and highly ambitious” who had perfected the art of hoodwinking police.

The son of a dairy farmer from Bhagirathi Vihar in northeast Delhi, Junaid hit upon the idea of contacting Chhota Shakeel after he saw the a Mumbai-based gangster’s mobile phone number flashed by a TV channel about three years ago.

Shakeel is the hitman of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, an accused in the 1993 serial bombings in Mumbai.

As a test of his loyalty and skills, Shakeel allegedly asked Junaid to draw up a plan to assassinate his main rival Chhota Rajan, lodged in Tihar jail.