GANGSTER ON MOST WANTED LIST ARRESTED FROM GUJARAT

nNEW DELHI: A 31-year-old suspected gangster, who figures on the list of Delhi’s most wanted, was arrested from Surat in Gujarat, where he was being sheltered by a local liquor mafia allegedly on the directions of his counterparts in Haryana, the police said Friday.

A life convict and parole jumper, Jyoti Prakash alias Baba was involved in a dozen crimes, including murder, kidnapping, and robbery in Delhi and Haryana, police said. Baba was fleeing to another city in Gujarat in an Audi Q7, allegedly provided to him by the liquor don Dhirenbhai Karia, when the Delhi Police’s counter intelligence team caught him.

Karia, who had contested the 2019 Parliamentary elections from Gujarat’s Junagarh as an independent candidate and lost, is presently lodged in Surat jail in connection with bootlegging cases, said deputy commissioner of police (counter intelligence) Manishi Chandra.

Originally from Delhi’s Najafgarh, Baba is the elder brother of fugitive gangster Kapil Sangwan alias Nandu, who carries a ₹50,000 reward on his arrest. Together, the brothers helm the Babanandu gang, which has a longstanding rivalry with another gang led by jailed gangster Manjeet Mahal. Their rivalry led to a dozen bloodbaths, including the killings of their relatives, in the south-western outskirts of Delhi and bordering areas of Haryana, the DCP said.

DCP Chandra said his team had received intelligence that Baba-nandu gang had joined ranks with liquor mafias in Haryana and Gujarat and Baba was being provided luxurious shelters in these states. The team prepared a list of major liquor mafias in these states and started infiltrating them, while also carrying out technical surveillance, he said. “Our efforts paid off when we learnt that Baba, who had fled to Nepal, had returned some months ago and was hiding in Gujarat. A team was dispatched and it kept a watch on him for nearly a week. Baba was caught on Thursday while trying to flee to another city,” Chandra said.