...Ends a decade-long gang war
New Delhi: Delhi's most wanted gangster Jitender Gogi, who was being hunted by at least 70 per cent of the Delhi Police's anti-terror unit at one point, was on Friday shot dead by his archrival Tillu Tajpuria's gang members, in the courtroom where he was being produced in a murder case.
One of the most infamous gang wars that the Capital has seen in the past decade is that between the Gogi and Tillu gangs. While Tillu has been in jail for a while now, Jitender had been giving the police the slip since he escaped in 2016 July, before being caught in a Gurugram apartment earlier this year.
According to profiles of the gangsters and their rivalry, Jitender had in Tillu's absence, become the most wanted man in Delhi after the arrest of Sonu Dariyapur. He was operating a clandestine network with largely included local disenchanted youth and even medal-winning sportspersons, including wrestlers.
Interestingly, when Gogi was doing his Bachelor in Arts from a college in outer Delhi in 2010, Tajpuria was his batchmate and a good friend.
Later, the friends turned foes while they supported two rival candidates in the student union elections. Police said that Gogi also had been a wrestler during his college days.
In the past years, many gang wars happened between Tillu and Gogi gang — where over 50 gang members were killed in both the gangs. In 2020, Gogi and his aide Kuldeep Fajja, who had been a topper at Delhi University, were arrested from Gurugram by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police, while the gangster was carrying a reward of Rs 8 lakh by both the Delhi and Haryana Police at the time of his arrest.
Profiles describe Gogi as the one always drawn to men known to be more intelligent than the average gangster.
Gogi's name had also cropped up in the famous Haryanvi singer-dancer Harshita's murder case. Further, Aam Aadmi Party leader Virendra Mann was also allegedly shot dead his the gang members in the Narela area of the national capital.
According to police officials, Tillu Tajpuria, who is currently lodged in Delhi's Mandoli jail, is suspected to have hatched the plan from his prison cell. A police source confirmed that Tajpuria's operatives outside the jail were sent to execute the shootout, adding that the two assailants were in fact his associates.
Delhi Police may interrogate Tillu Tajpuria soon in connection with the case, as per sources.
And while the police have been quite open about the gang war in Outer Delhi between the two gangs, they have maintained that Gogi and Tillu were at each others' throats in a manner that reminded them of the time gangs went on spates of revenge killings in the 1980s.
The Indian Express has quoted people close to Gogi, saying that he had only one purpose and that was to completely destroy Tillu, with police officers saying that Gogi would continue trying to kill Tillu, even when he was in jail.
