Watch on rivals, aides helped cops nab Papla
JAIPUR: A close watch on rival gang members of Vikram Gujjar alias Papla, one of the most wanted criminals of Rajasthan and Haryana, and gathering of intelligence led police to trace the gangster in Kolhapur of Maharashtra, officials said.
“Through different channels, the Jaipur range police was keeping a close eye on rival gangs of Chiku, Mukhtar Ansari, Dr Kuldeep, Randeep Bhati, Surendra Bhati, and Jagan Gujrar. These criminals operate in National Capital Region, Eastern UP and Haryana,” said a top police official who didn’t wish to be named.
Papla had escaped from police custody in a dramatic manner in September 2019. Around 15 to 20 people armed with AK-47S arrived in three cars at Behror police station and began firing. As policemen ducked for cover, attackers stormed into the police station and walked away with Papla.
A special team led by ASP Siddhant Sharma was trying to locate Papla under the supervision of IGP Hawa Singh Ghumariya and former IGP S Sengathir, the official said.
Papla belonged to the ‘Dr Kuldeep Yadav gang’, an MBBS who turned gangster in 2012.
The police official said, ”Surveillance of thousands of mobile numbers, watch over internet activities of close people, scrutiny of bank transactions and info collected about social media pages and paytm, arrest and interrogation of close aides, and inputs collected from sources helped police in identifying one of the active aides of the gangster in October end last year.”
The special team found that the close aide of Papla was constantly roaming between National Capital Region and Maharashtra between October 2020 and January 2021.
“Later, with the help of local police, the team traced a female friend of Papla and her phone was put on surveillance
JAIPUR: On the day gangster Papla Gujjar was arrested, Kota city police nabbed Aslam Sher Khan alias Chintu (40), a criminal who carrying a bounty of ₹ 1 lakh.
“To nab him we started creating pressure on him. On Wednesday, his illegally built house in Kota was demolished.six teams were formed to nab Chintu,” Kota SP Vikas Pathak.
The SP said, “The location of the accused was found in Delhi. The teams raided Delhi, Noida and Haryana. From there Chintu fled and went towards Maharashtra and Gujarat. Fearing arrest, he kept changing his whereabouts. On Thursday, the special team arrested Chintu from Dhara area of Kota Rural.”
through which clue on the gangster was obtained. His location was traced where he used to stay with her female friend and was later arrested. We are yet to find out the other location where he used to go during daytime,” said another police official familiar with the development of the case.
IGP Ghumariya said that on January 19, ASP Siddhant Sharma along with a small team was sent to Kolhapur and they reached the next day.
“Another team reached Kolhapur on January 22. Though locals we came to know that some people with Haryanvi dialect come to gyms. The team started keeping an eye on gyms through which information on the female friend of Papla was obtained and later through surveillance on her, location of Papla was found,” he said.
Papla was arrested from Kolhapur on Thursday.
“Papla had changed his name to Udham Singh and had managed an Aadhaar card in the name. He was living with a woman, who ran a gym. Police zeroed in on him on January 26. He was nabbed on the intervening night of January 27-28. Papla tried to jump from third floor of a building to evade his arrest, but was nabbed,” said Mohan Lal Lather, director general of police (DGP).
On Friday Papla was sent to judicial custody for one day as police wanted to carry out his identification parade and he will be taken on police remand later. Papla’s friend, identified as Jiyaussahar Sigligar alias Jiya, was sent to police remand for 7 days.