Two shooters of gang that killed three in 20 days held after Rohini face-off

NEW DELHI: In an early-hour face-off in Rohini on Monday, Delhi Police’s Crime Branch managed to arrest two shooters of a Haryana-based gang with arms and ammunition.

The shooters, identified as Ravi and Rohit, are involved in multiple murders, extortions and robberies in Delhi and Haryana. They belong to the notorious Sethi-Basodi gang of Jhajjar, which recently joined hands with Delhi’s most wanted gangster, Jitender Gogi, to expand their operation base.
According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Joy Tirkey, the gang had become so trigger-happy that they had carried out three murders in just 20 days.During this period, they had also robbed houses, leaving the police in a tizzy.
The gang first bumped off a property dealer for allegedly being in touch with their rivals on March 10. For a few months before the attack, the deceased, Dharmendra K K, was being threatened by the gang kingpin, Naresh Sethi, who is lodged in the Jhajjar jail, and was asked to pay protection money. A reward of Rs 1 lakh was declared on Ravi in this case.
Three days later, Ravi and his associates gunned down a liquor trader after he refused to give in to their extortion demand. The co-kingpin, Raju Basodi, had asked the shooters to demand Rs 2 crore as protection money from Narender Nandu.
The gang then lay low for a fortnight before gunning down a hotelier in Sonipat on April 1 for not paying protection money. The victim, Satish Deswal, was shot inside his establishment, Maharaja Hotel, by the gang members.
On April 2, they struck at a house in Yamuna Nagar, Haryana after holding the family of a builder hostage at gunpoint. But they were surrounded by villagers on their way out and had to leave their Swift car at the spot. They looted another house in Panipat and fled with cash and valuables worth lakhs.
The police had received a tip-off about the gang’s presence in the capital following which a special team comprising Assistant Commissioner of Police Arvind, inspector Mukesh Antil and others was constituted to nab its members.
On April 28, cops laid a trap near the helipad in Sector 24, Rohini, and flagged down the suspects who were riding a Yamaha bike. The duo abandoned the bike and tried to flee on foot. As the cops chased them, the criminals opened fire. However, after chasing the duo for around 500 meters, the police managed to overpower them. Four pistols and live cartridges have been seized.
Ravi told the police that he had committed his first murder in 2016 when he killed his neighbour over a petty argument. He then joined the gang. On February 8, he got a week’s parole to attend his sister’s marriage but did not return to jail. He had recently met members of the Gogi gang to finalise the deal.