NE NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, JULY 31
The Delhi Police has arrested wanted gangster Jyoti Prakash alias Baba, who was carrying a reward of Rs 1 lakh on his arrest, from Surat in Gujarat, officials said on Friday.
The 31-year-old, a resident of Najafgarh, had been absconding since August 2019 after jumping parole granted by a Haryana court, they said.
He was also wanted in a case of MCOC Act registered against him and his 11 gang members, including his younger brother Kapil Sangwan alias Nandu, police said.
“The police got a tip-off that Jyoti was hiding in Gujarat using fake identities. Thereafter, a police team reached Surat in Gujarat and arrested him while he was trying to move to another city in an Audi Q7 SUV. He was brought to Delhi,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Manishi Chandra said.
The car was found to be registered in the name of one Dhienbhai Karia, a resident of Junagadh in Gujarat, who is an infamous liquor mafia of the state, the DCP said.
Dhirenbhai is presently understood to be lodged in Surat jail, Gujarat, and his involvement with the gangsters are being probed, the DCP said.
In Delhi, the accused led the police to one of his hideouts in Najafgarh from where a sophisticated pistol, loaded with four live rounds, was recovered, and thereafter, a case under Arms Act was also registered against him, police said.
Jyoti disclosed that after jumping parole, he joined ranks with liquor barons of Haryana who later connected him with their counterparts from Junagarh in Gujarat, the DCP said.
He took shelter in Junagadh and kept changing his hideouts between Rajkot, Ahmedabad, and Surat.
These shelters were provided to him by Dhirenbhai Karia who had also lent his Mercedes, Fortuner, and Audi vehicles to him and his gang members for movement, the officer said.
Last year, after the arrest of his gang members Amit Gulia and others, he along with his gang members moved to Nepal and stayed there for six months, the DCP said, adding he returned to India around three to four months ago and was staying in Gujarat.
Jyoti appeared on the stage of crime at the age of 16 when he committed a murder in Gurgaon.
At the age of 19, he committed another murder in the line of ongoing gang-war in Bahadurgarh, Haryana, and absconded. He was subsequently arrested and after trial, was sentenced to life.
After his conviction, his younger brother Kapil Sangwan alias Nandu took over the command of his gang.
Baba, however, continued guiding and directing the gang from jail, the police said.
