NEW DELHI: A 25-year-old criminal, wanted in three murder cases, has been arrested for killing Virender Mann, a former Assembly candidate from Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
Mann died after being shot 30 times by five assailants on September 8. Fifteen of the 30 bullets had hit him.
The victim himself had 14 criminal cases against him. The incident took place in north-west Delhi’s Narela area.
The criminal, one of the accused in the case, has been identified as Kapil Mann alias Kallu, a resident of Kheda Khurd. He was carrying a reward of Rs 1,25,000, police said.
He was arrested under sections 302 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code at Narela police station from Sector 34 near Kheda canal on Sunday. He was wanted in eight cases of murder, attempt to murder and robbery, among others, police said.
On September 8, the accused followed the victim’s car and after finding it stuck in traffic near Sadabad in Narela, opened fire at the leader vying for MLA-ship.
The other cases of murders against him are registered at KN Katju police station and Bawana police station. Police said that efforts were on to recover the weapon with which the crime was committed and arrest the remaining accused. They said the arrest would shed light on the motive behind the killing.
The accused, it is learnt, belong to a gang run by Jitender Gogi, who is currently considered the most notorious gangster in the capital.
He escaped police custody in July 2016 and has since been on the run. According to the police, Gogi demanded Rs 50 lakh as protection money from a local MLA, who was closely associated with Virender.
The victim was negotiating on behalf of the MLA, which might have irked Gogi and his associates. Virender had helped Pravesh Mann, another dreaded criminal, get bail in a murder case.
Pravesh is considered a close associate of gangster Neeraj Bawana.