'Dariyapur duo' rivalry over marriage ends up in murder

In the late 80's, Bhupendra alias Monu and his friend Sonu would play for hours in their native village located in outer Delhi's Dariyapur village.

Growing up together in Dariyapur, the name of the locality was suffixed as their surname.

The Dariyapur duo would eventually go on to earn notoriety as they got involved in several criminal cases.

"They had set up an extortion racket in outer Delhi. They used to extort money from local businesses and were also involved in several cases of assault. Monu and Sonu had also staked their claim in the burgeoning property dealing business in the early 2000s," said a police source, privy to the duo's previous criminal involvements.

After the property business skyrocketed, Sonu and Monu had pocketed a lion's share, through their extortion rackets. Several prominent gangsters would find themselves in the spotlight, because of their involvement in murders in the south-west, outer, and Rohini areas, however, the duo managed to stay out of trouble till 2006.

Monu had fallen in love with Sonu's sister in 2006 and wanted to marry her. However, this created a rift, as Sonu would not consent to their marriage.

After several failed negotiations, Monu finally put his foot down and asked his friend to respect him as he would be his future brother-in-law.

Infuriated by the humiliation, Sonu threatened to murder his best friend along with his sister. Right after their marriage, Sonu orchestrated an attack on them near Punjabi Bagh flyover, but the couple managed to escape.

Ten associates of Sonu were incarcerated after Monu and his wife deposed against them in a local court. Sonu Dariyapur, after a brief stay in prison, managed to jump parole in 2009.

With Sonu out of the way, Monu pursued other interests. Along with his entourage comprising of his associates and bodyguards, Monu would throw parties at high-end hotels.Still excelling in the property and finance business, he would spend the money in procuring semi-automatic weapons and had also set up his own NGO, 'Help Others'.

"The NGO was used to help out poor children. The NGO primarily dealt with providing free education and medical treatment for the children," said Vishal Chopra, Monu's advocate.

Apart from the NGO, Monu had also started documenting his life on Facebook live and would upload the videos on YouTube.

"The media is treating him like a gangster. He had five criminal cases against him and has been acquitted in all of them. He was involved in some civil matters as well. He never killed anyone," Chopra added.

On Sunday night, Monu Dariyapur was gunned down along with his associate and an ASI with Delhi Police in Paschim Vihar's Mianwali Nagar.