Deepak Pahal alias Deepak Boxer, one of the most-wanted gangsters in Delhi, was brought to the city from Mexico on Wednesday and remanded to eight days’ custody. The Delhi Police had sought his custody for 14 days but the court agreed to eight days.
The gangster was produced before the Patiala House Courts, directly from the lock-up due to security reasons. Boxer had fled India to Mexico on a forged passport. Earlier, a two-member team of the Delhi Police's Special Cell landed with Deepak at Terminal 3 of Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport from Mexico via Istanbul at around 6 AM on Wednesday.
Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) HGS Dhaliwal said the gangster had taken multiple routes and stops to reach Mexico on his way to the US ("donkey" method). But he landed in their net laid with the help of the office of the Legal Attache, US Embassy, New Delhi. The gangster, a winner of a national-level boxing championship, was trying to enter the US illegally via Mexico and planning to run his organised crime gang in Delhi and neighbouring States from there. "Boxer got a passport made in Bareilly (Uttar Pradesh) and took a flight from Kolkata.
He changed flights to reach Mexico. His aim was to cross into the US. The US' Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Mexico Police really helped a lot," Dhaliwal said. This is a "big success" for the Special Cell as this was a coordinated effort of all teams, he said and added that Deepak's cousin Sandeep is currently in California but no detention has been made. "There is an elaborate drug syndicate and even human trafficking is common, but in the case of Deepak, a Pakistani national Ali's involvement is being investigated," the officer said.
"It is very early to say about the involvement of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang in his leaving the country but this is clear that he was always aligned towards the gang," Dhaliwal said, adding that police have information on other gangsters and "work is on". Deepak's interrogation will help in gathering more information, the senior officer said. His Gogi gang is allegedly linked to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, according to police.
"We received inputs in January that Deepak got a fake passport made in the name of Ravi Antil from Bareilly to flee the country. He took a flight from Kolkata to Dubai. Then from Dubai, he went to Almaty, Kazakhstan, and reached Turkey. He then headed for Spain. After taking multiple routes, he finally reached Mexico," Dhaliwal said.
"Our teams were constantly tracking his routes," he said at a press conference held on Tuesday. He said Delhi Police zeroed in on the gangster's location in Cancun, a city notorious for human traffickers and the narcotics mafia, after interrogating several of his aides and using technical inputs. "His intention behind reaching Mexico was to reach America, with the help of human traffickers, where he would join his other associates. From there, he had planned to run his organised crime group in Delhi and neighbouring states," Dhaliwal added. Now that he has been brought to India, he will be interrogated in the cases he has been involved including the murder of a builder in Delhi's Civil Lines area.
It was the first time that Delhi Police arrested a gangster in an operation outside the country. Police had announced a reward of Rs 3 lakh on information leading to the arrest of Deepak, who led the Gogi gang, which is allegedly linked to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang.
According to police, notorious gangster Boxer, a resident of Haryana's Sonipat, was wanted in 10 criminal cases including murder, attempted murder, and under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), among others.