Ropar Police on Friday arrested one of Delhi’s and Uttar Pradesh’s most wanted gangsters, carrying Rs one lakh bounty and wanted in 10 murder cases, after a hot chase and exchange of fire. Wanted in a triple murder case of in Uttar Pradesh’s Mirzapur, Prakash Mishra alias Jhunna Pandit is the eleventh gangster nabbed by the Ropar Police in the past one year.
Ropar Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Swapan Sharma said that Pandit was carrying a bounty of Rs one lakh on his head and was wanted in 10 murder cases, including a triple murder in Uttar Pradesh’s Mirzapur. “He has six cases under the UP Gangster Act. Pandit’s gang is involved in over 20 murder cases, extortion and kidnapping in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh,” he said.
Ropar Police’s CIA teams also seized from him 2 pistols of 32 bore and 8 live bullets, along with some personal items, after the encounter which led to his arrest early Friday morning.
Pandit had reportedly been on the run, ever since he and his gang members publicly killed one Dilip Patel in Banaras. Dilip’s brother Rajesh Patel is UP state president of Kisan Morcha. The gangster enjoys the patronage of many anti-social elements based in Delhi, UP and Rajasthan.
Eight members of Jhunna Pandit’s gang are already in Jails of Delhi and UP, and most of the crimes committed by the group are of supari-killings and inter-gang rivalry.
SSP Sharma said that Pandit is said to be an expert marksman who can handle any type of weapon, and can fire any weapon using both his hands. “He had been hiding in safe houses in Delhi, Jaipur and Mount Abu since he fled UP and was returning to Delhi from Chintpurni (Himachal Pradesh),” he said.
Sharma said that recent investigations show that most of the gangsters and contraband smugglers use a common modus-operandi. “They use local routes to travel and usually have hideouts near religious places, in order to remain anonymous. Anti-social activity of such elements in areas around Punjab-Himachal border have come down drastically in recent months, with the police discovering their basic modus operandi,” he added.
A desperate criminal, Pandit committed his first crime at the age of 15 and first murder at the age of 16. He was kept in juvenile jail twice for a period of three years each.
Initial investigations reveal that the dreaded criminal even got three murders, involving extortion and kidnapping, executed when he was in jail. Interestingly, he travelled on flight whenever he was on a run.