Mitraon village in South West Delhi, home to active gang war, woke up to gun shots on Sunday morning, when 70-year-old Kishan Mahal, father of dreaded criminal Manjeet Mahal, was allegedly shot dead by a group of men near his residence in Outer Delhi’s Baba Najafgarh area, police said.

According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer) Rishi Pal, the incident was reported around at the lal Dora road in the Mitraon village in Najafgarh area 11.24 am on Sunday. Kishan Mahal was buying vegetables from a local vendor when a group of four to five men stepped out of a Scorpio car, with a Haryana number plate, went up to Kishan and fired around 12 rounds at him. Mahal suffered two gun-shot injuries each on the head and the chest.

Eyewitnesses told police that after firing at Mahal, the accused fled the spot.  The vegetable vendor raised an alarm and informed Mahal's family. The family made a PCR call after which a team of Baba Haridass Nagar police station rushed the victim to Rao Tula Ram Hospital where he was declared brought dead.

A police officer privy to the investigation said the horrific incident was captured in the CCTV cameras installed in the area. Police are scanning the CCTV footage to ascertain the identity of the culprits.

“In the preliminary investigation, we found that the group of five men, with their mufflered faces reached on the kucha road where Kishan Mahal was buying vegetables. The kucha road is a few metres away from the Mahal residence. So far, we are assuming that the car of the accused had a fake number plate. Teams have been formed to nab the accused at the earliest,” said a senior police officer.

Police said that a case has been registered under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code at the Baba Haridass Nagar police station.

Manjeet Mahal, one of the accused in the murder of Najafgarh INlD MlA Bharat Singh, brother of Krishan Pehalwan, in March 2015, is languishing in Tihar Jail. Sources said that the involvement of the rival gang cannot be ruled out at this stage of the investigation.

Following the murder, police have stepped up vigil in the area and teams from Crime Branch and Special Cell, specialised units of the Delhi Police have been asked to keep an eye on the activities of the miscreants in the area to avert any untoward incident.

The murder of Manjeet Mahal's father is likely to create an active turf war amongst the remaining members of the Pehalwan and Mahal gang in the following days.

Mitraon village and Dichaon Kala are some of the infamous areas of South West Delhi, which have seen bloody turf wars between gangs over establishing supremacy in the area. The rivalry has claimed at least 50 lives over the last two decades. The rivalry between Manjeet Mahal and Pehalwan gang, the suspects in Sunday's murder, can be traced back to the 1990s. Back in those days, two gangs — Anoop-Balraj gang and Krishan Pehalwan gang dominated the landscape of the villages of South-West Delhi.

The gangs fought over establishing supremacy over minting money through extortion and land grabbing. The rivalry between the two gangs turned gory over the years when main members Anoop and Balraj were eliminated in the 1990s. Taking over the reigns, Manjeet Mahal led the gang in recent times. It was the members of the Mahal gang that struck down brother of Krishan Pehalwan, Bharat Singh while he was attending a wedding in Najafgarh area. Mahal was arrested by the Special Cell over charges of extortion, heinous crimes in December last year.

Months later, members of the two gangs attacked each other yet the turf war became less bloody over time. Police said that the murder of the close family member of Manjeet Mahal is likely to ignite tensions in the area.