Court sends gangster 'Boxer' to 8-day police custody

New Delhi: Deepak "Boxer", one of the most wanted fugitives in India who was nabbed by the police authorities in Mexico, was brought to New Delhi on Wednesday, officials said. He was sent an eight-day police custody in connection with a fake passport case

A two-member team of Delhi Police's Special Cell landed with Deepak at Terminal 3 of Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport from Mexico via Istanbul at around 6 AM this morning. He will be interrogated in connection with his criminal activities and alleged involvement in killing a builder in north Delhi's Civil Lines area, police said.

The gangster, a winner in a national-level boxing championship, was trying to enter the US illegally via Mexico and planning to run his organised crime gang in Delhi and neighbouring states from there before being caught, a senior police official.

Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) HGS Dhaliwal said the gangster had taken multiple routes and stops to reach Mexico on his way to the US ("donkey" method). But he landed in their net laid with the help of the office of the Legal Attache, US Embassy, New Delhi. It was the first time that Delhi Police arrested a gangster in an operation outside the country. Police had announced a reward of Rs 3 lakh on information leading to the arrest of Deepak, who led the Gogi gang, which is allegedly linked to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang.

"We received inputs in January that Deepak got made a fake passport in the name of Ravi Antil from Bareilly to flee the country. He took a flight from Kolkata to Dubai. Then from Dubai, he went to Almaty, Kazakhstan, and reached Turkey. He then headed for Spain. After taking multiple routes, he finally reached Mexico," Dhaliwal said.

"Our teams were constantly tracking his routes," he said at a press conference held on Tuesday.

He said Delhi Police zeroed in on the gangster's location in Cancun, a city notorious for human traffickers and the narcotics mafia, after interrogating several of his aides and using technical inputs. "His intention behind reaching Mexico was to reach America, with the help of human traffickers, where he would join his other associates. From there, he had planned to run his organised crime group in Delhi and neighbouring states," Dhaliwal added.

His arrest is a result of coordinated efforts by the crime branch and special cell, police said. The gangster is wanted in India in 10 sensational cases, including murder and extortion, over the last five years, they said. Deepak, a resident of Gannaur in Haryana's Sonipat district, headed the Gogi gang after the killing of its head Jitendra Mann alias Gogi inside the Rohini court complex by two men in September 2021.