As the cops dive deep into the probe of the murder of Sagar Dhankar at Chhatrasal stadium, it has come to light through a report in India Today that the Delhi Police is investigating ties between accused wrestler Sushil Kumar and notorious gangster Neeraj Bawana, who allegedly runs his empire from Tihar jail.
Bawana’s henchmen are allegedly suspected to have accompanied the Olympian when the assault took place on May 4. The fact that the SUV retrieved from the crime scene belonged to Bawana’s aide Mohit has set the alarm bells ringing. The police found a 12-bore semi-automatic shotgun and a few cartridges in the car on the night of the incident.
Neeraj, the Wannabe King of Delhi’s Underworld
Neeraj operated in and around Delhi, Haryana, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. Several cases of murders, robberies, property-grabbing and criminal intimidation had been lodged against him in the National Capital Region.
Dawood Ibrahim was his idol and Tihar Jail was where he learnt the tricks of the trade he wanted to rule. According to Hindustan Times, a petty burglary attempt at Haryana’s Bhiwani, when he was 18 years old, was the first step in his endeavour to capture the number one position in the Capital’s underworld.
His ambition picked steam when he met Fazal-ur-Rahman, one of the most-dreaded mafia dons and a wingman of Dawood, who functioned from Malaysia, Dubai, Nepal and India, in Tihar Jail. Bawana picked his brains as the pair spent a couple of months together around a dozen years ago, as per Hindustan Times.
Dipping his toes into extortion and contract killings, Bawana spearheaded his gang to new heights. Although he forayed into the world of crime in 2004, it was the fallout with his former partner Surendra Malik alias Neetu Daboda that thrust him into the limelight, according to India Today. Over a dozen people are believed to have fallen prey to this spiteful gang rivalry. Daboda was later murdered in an encounter with the Special Cell of Delhi Police, but the conflict between the two parties continued.
On 25 August 2015, police were ferrying Bawana back in the prison van after producing him at a Rohini court when he, with the help of his deputies, allegedly killed two of his rivals – Paras Vikram and Pradeep Bhola – who were also present in the vehicle. In April 2017, he allegedly took out another of his foes Rajesh Dhurmut outside Rohini court. He was reportedly gunned down by two men at the behest of the sharpshooters of the Dabodia gang, Narender and Satish.
Hindustan Times reported that Bawana, Delhi’s most wanted gangster until his arrest in April 2015, once listed his demands for an iPod, FM Radio, and non-vegetarian homemade food to the superintendent of jail number 2, reasoning that he needed these items to “pass time and maintain his sanity”.
Bawana was earlier locked up in jail number 1 with other prisoners but was transferred to the stringent high-security ward last year after Delhi Police informed the authorities concerned that Bawana was allegedly in touch with his gang associates inside and outside the prison, according to Hindustan Times.
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