Two persons including a lawyer were arrested as the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday conducted raids at over 50 locations in five states targeting the nexus between terrorists, gangsters and drug traffickers, officials said. The major crackdown was carried out in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and the Delhi-NCR region to dismantle and disrupt the criminal networks based in India and abroad, a spokesperson of the NIA said.
The NIA said advocate Asif Khan, a resident of Delhi and Rajesh alias ‘Raju Mota’ of Haryana were arrested during the raids.
“Four weapons and a few pistols (in semi knocked down condition) along with ammunition were recovered from Khan’s house,” the spokesperson said.
The official added that during examination it came to light that Khan was in touch with gangsters, both inside and outside the jail, and was actively assisting the criminals in carrying out various types of illegal activities. The spokesperson said Rajesh also has a criminal background and has multiple criminal cases registered against him.
“He is running an illegal liquor mafia network in Sonepat and surrounding areas, along with his associates. He is an accomplice of Sandeep alias Kala Jathedi who is a dreaded gangster of Haryana,” the official said.
The NIA said Rajesh has also invested huge amount of money, earned through illegitimate means, in the liquor business.
The agency searched the premises of Sampat Nehra in Rajasthan’s Churu; Naresh Sethi, a notorious gangster-criminal of Jhajjar in Haryana; Surender alias Cheeku of Haryana’s Narnaul; Naveen alias Bali of Bawana in Delhi; Amit alias Dabang of Tajpur in outer Delhi; Amit Dagar from Gurugram; Sandeep alias Bandar and Salim alias pistol of northeast Delhi; and Qurban and Rizwan of Khurja in Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh.
The raids also covered the premises of their associates. In Punjab’s Bathinda, the raids were conducted at the residences of advocate Gurpreet Singh Sidhu, Kabaddi promoter Jagga Jandian and alleged gangster Jaman Singh, police sources said.
Sidhu said his residence was searched by a team of NIA, while Kabaddi promoter Jandian claimed the agency team just took away his mobile phone.
“The raids were aimed to dismantle and disrupt the emerging nexus between terrorists, gangsters and drug smugglers/traffickers based in India and abroad,” a National Investigation Agency (NIA) spokesperson said.
He said a few of the “most desperate” gang leaders and their associates based in India and abroad, who are spearheading and carrying out such terror and criminal activities, were identified and booked in two cases registered by the NIA in August this year.
Apart from the weapons, incriminating documents, digital devices, details about benami property created through proceeds of crime, cash, gold bars and gold jewellery from Khurja , Bulandshahar (UP), threat letters, etc. have also been seized by the NIA,” the spokesperson said.
He said the investigation will continue “to dismantle such terror networks as well as their funding and support infrastructure”.
“Preliminary investigations have revealed that these gangs were carrying out targeted killings and were also raising funds to carry out such criminal activities through smuggling of drugs and weapons,” he said.
The official said the raids were undertaken after “recent sensational crimes and extortion calls by criminal syndicates and gangsters to businessmen and professionals, including doctors, had created a widespread scare among the people.”
“These gangs were using cyberspace to publicise these crimes to create terror among the public at large,” he said. The NIA investigation, he said, also found that such criminal acts were not isolated local incidents but there was a deep-rooted conspiracy amongst terrorists, gangsters and drug smuggling cartels and networks, who were operating from both within and outside the country.
“Many gang leaders and members had fled from India and were now operating from foreign countries, including Pakistan, Canada, Malaysia, Australia. “Ongoing probes by the NIA such as the one into the killing of Shaurya Chakra awardee Balwinder Singh in Punjab also revealed that most of these conspiracies were being hatched from inside jails of different states and were being executed by an organised network of operatives based abroad,” he said.
As part of its raids on Tuesday, the NIA also searched the residence of lawyer Avinash Yadav, a member of the Bar Association of Gurugram. The Bar Association has condemned the NIA action.
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