By IANS,
New Delhi : Police are on the lookout for 47 members of a gang of extortionists and paid killers who operated under the leadership of Neetu Dabodha, who was gunned down here a day ago, along with two associates.
“We were trailing Dabodha for over one year, and we have a dossier on him. Till now, 47 members of his gang are on our wanted list,” said Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) S.N. Srivastava.
The Haryana-based criminal, Surender Malik alias Neetu Dabodha, 29, was killed in an exchange of fire Thursday along with Alok Gupta and Deepak Ray near the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Vasant Kunj area of south Delhi.
“The trio were taken to AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) where they were declared dead,” the officer said.
Srivastava said Gupta and Ray were not in the dossier, but during investigations, Gupta’s role in five criminal cases came to light.
“We are verifying Ray’s background, to ascertain whether he was involved in any criminal case or if he had only joined Dabodha’s gang recently,” said the officer.
Explaining the sequence of events, Srivastava said a tip-off was received, and the accused were spotted travelling in an I-20 Hyundai car near a petrol pump in the Vasant Kunj area.
“When our team signalled to them to stop, they sped towards the Grand Hyatt Hotel using the C-5 link road. After a few minutes’ chase, our team in a bullet-proof Scorpio intercepted them near the hotel,” said Srivastava.
He said the criminals rammed their car against the police vehicle and opened fire.
“We retaliated in self defence and after 18 minutes’ exchange of fire, the trio were gunned down,” said Srivastava.
“No police team member was injured as all were wearing bullet-proof jackets,” he said.
The officer said Dabodha, with a bounty of Rs.3 lakh on his head, had come to Delhi to execute a kidnapping-cum-ransom plan. “One revolver, two pistols, one carbine and 45 live cartridges were recovered from their possession,” the officer said.
In 2012, after attacking the police team, Dabodha, along with his associate Sandeep Chitania, had fled from police custody while being taken back to Haryana’s Bhondsi jail after production in Delhi’s Saket court in a case.
“Escaping from the custody, Dabodha formed his crime syndicate along with Chitania, Vikram, Gupta, Pradeep, Bakra and some other associates, and indulged in extortion, kidnapping, car-jacking, robbery, dacoity and contract killing,” Srivastava said.
Along with Vikram, Gupta and one Kale, Dabodha also shot dead Delhi Police head constable Ram Kishan, who was posted at a picket in the jurisdiction of west Delhi’s Kanjhawla police station. The head constable was shot at after he stopped their car in the intervening night of November 25-26, 2012.