Five members of a gang have been arrested for allegedly opening fire and killing a “dhaba” owner and injuring two members of a rival gang at Adarsh Nagar in North-West Delhi earlier this month.
The police had received a call around midnight on August 9 night saying that three persons were shot at and injured by a group of unidentified persons near a “dhaba” in Block “A” Indira Nagar.
The “dhaba” owner, Anil Shah, was declared brought dead at Bara Hindu Rao Hospital. The injured brothers, Rahul Rathi and Anuranjan Rathi, were admitted to a trauma centre. The two belong to Mahender Pahelwan gang.
Rahul later told the police that he suspected Babley gang to be behind the attack and a case was registered at the Adarsh Nagar police station.
Taking up investigation, the police found that there was a history of rivalry between Mahender Pahelwan and Babley gangs, but the two gangs had buried the hatchet over a decade ago. The involvement of Babley gang in the attack was thus ruled out.
Further investigation revealed that Mahender Pahelwan gang had long-standing dispute with Vinod Bhagte gang over a piece of land in Bhalswa Dairy and cable business in Adarsh Nagar and Jehangirpuri.
The police found that the attack was carried out by the Vinod Bhagte gang to establish their supremacy over their rivals. The accused were arrested and identified as Vinod Bhagte (35), Vikas Kataria (28), Pradeep Kumar (28), Rakesh Kumar (27) and Triveni Sharma (29).
According to the police, the accused had been trailing Mahender Pahelwan for over a week before the attack and wanted to eliminate him. On the fateful day, they spotted the car of Mahender Pehalwan parked near a “dhaba” with its headlights on. The two sharp shooters of the gang, Vikas and Pardeep, opened indiscriminate fire at the car assuming that Mahender Pehalwan was inside it.
Vinod and Triveni belong to Delhi. Vikas, Pradeep and Rakesh are from Haryana.
