Tension prevailed in Najafgarh, where former MLA Bharat Singh was killed in a firing on Sunday evening, with fear of possible gang-wars hounding the area.
Mr. Singh’s men have reportedly been looking for possible suspects, sources said, forcing the Delhi Police to increase security in the area. “We fear that the incident may lead to more gang-wars and keeping this in mind we have deployed extra force to avert any untoward incidents,” a senior police officer said.
In a related development, Mr. Singh’s brother and local strongman Krishan Pehalwan on Monday alleged that the Delhi Police compromised with his brother’s security as they undermined the intensity of threat to him from the local gangs. “My brother was attacked two months ago also. That time we had requested the Delhi Police and the Ministry of Home Affairs to enhance his security, but they did not pay attention. He was attacked in 2012 as well, but the police did not take his security seriously. As a result , today I have lost my younger brother,” Pehalwan told reporters.
The attack in 2012 was believed to be the resurgence of a 1990s feud between two Najafgarh gangs, who have been accused of being involved in land-grabbing and real estate business. Clashes between the Pehalwan and Balraj gangs, allegedly involved in extortion and contract killings, claimed lives almost every day in the late 1990s, police sources said. Pehalwan had eliminated Balraj in 1998, but after years of lying low, members of the Balraj gang became active in 2012.
