Key player in Najafgarh’s endless gang wars, Nafe finally lands in police net

NEW DELHI: After two years on their toes, a Special Cell unit of Delhi Police has arrested the notorious gangster, Nafe alias Mantri, an associate of jailed gangster, Manjeet Mahal from Keshopur Depot, Paschimvihar on Saturday.

Nafe, who was wanted in nine cases of Murder, attemp-to-murder and arms act, had killed the associate of a rival gang, Sunil alias Doctor, which set off a bloody gang war which fuelled a series of revenge killings finally culminating in the murder of his mentor Manjeet Mahal’s father last month.

With Nafe’s arrest, all the primary gang leaders and their associates are behind bars, except for the elusive Hemanth who now heads the slain, Udaiveer alias Kale’s gang and was involved in the murder of EX-MLA, Bharat Singh last year.

Special Cell has been investigating the revenge-fuelled gang wars which had plagued the villages of Mitraon and Dichaon Kalan in South West Delhi. Their main target was Nafe alias Mantri, who had been on the run for the past two years. Mantri was wanted in a string of murders and it was expected that he would avenge the killings of his mentor Manjeet Mahal’s father, Shri Krishan in January this year.

According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell), Sanjeev Kumar Yadav, “Nafe was constantly on the move and he was shifting his hideouts. He had shifted from various locations in Haryana, Rajasthan, Outer Delhi, and South West Delhi. We had also conducted several raids to apprehend them.”

However, Nafe stayed one step ahead of the raids. When Manjeet Mahal’s father was gunned down, crucial inputs were received that Nafe had shifted his base to Morni Hills, Panchkula in Haryana. Further, when the investigation was underway, the police had found that Nafe was on his way to Delhi to meet his associates. “He had kept evading us and then we found that he was going to set up a meeting in Panchkula with his associates. But for some reason, he shifted the venue of the meeting and decided to go back to Delhi,” Yadav added.

A trap was laid near Keshopur Depot and around midnight, Nafe was spotted and was apprehended from the spot. The police also managed to recover a .32 bore pistol and five live cartridges.

With Nafe under arrest, the police are now currently questioning him. They are trying to ascertain the list of associates that Nafe and Manjeet had nurtured over the years apart from the list of safe houses and the suppliers of weapons. Now, with many of the gang leaders behind bars, the police are now going to focus their entire effort to capture the last gang leader in Najafgarh, Hemanth, who has been on the run for the past one year, and who had gunned down the main witness in the Bharat Singh killing case by setting up a honey pot in Japani Park.