A notorious interstate criminal and kingpin of the infamous 'Advani gang', identified as Shahid (27) alias Advani, has been arrested by the Crime Investigation Agency (Sector-31) of the Gurugram police on Wednesday. He was picked up by a police team from the District Court premises after a specific intelligence was received by the police about his presence.
Shahid, a resident of Mewat, was wanted in around 200 cases and was carrying a reward of `5 lakh by the Haryana police.
Advani, specialised in uprooting ATMs, is a prominent gangster from Kharkhari village in Tauru tehsil of Mewat. He was involved in several cases, including murder, robbery, vehicle theft, loot, uprooting ATMs, house theft and carjacking.
The Police said that the accused is an expert at uprooting ATMs using a pick-up van, taking them to an isolated place and cutting them open with a gas cutter to retrieve the cash.
However, in the previous year, the wanted criminal was arrested by the crime branch, Bilaspur in connection with a carjacking in Pataudi, but was escaped from the police custody.
The accused has dozens of cases registered against his name in Gurugram, Rewari, Tauru and Bhiwadi. He was involved in several heinous crimes including murder on January 17, 2017 in Tauru. The murder was said to be the fallout of an old rivalry. A case of kidnapping and robbery was also registered against the accused at Faridabad central police station.
Advani was arrested by the crime branch in connection with an ATM theft in Daultabad. The case was registered at Rajendra Park police station on January 2018 and handed over to the crime unit of Sector-31. He was produced before the court on Thursday and sent to eight-day police custody.
In the initial police questioning, "The accused said that whenever he used to come in Gurugram or go to any other state to carry out the incident, every time he used to bring a new partner with him and a rented car. So that police could not get any information about him," said ACP (crime) Shamsher Singh Dahiya, adding they are hoping to extract more information during Advani's interrogation.
Police said notorious Advani gang has executed a series of ATM thefts in Gurugram and adjoining areas between 2012and 2018. The gang members are from Kharkhari village in Mewat, and they have a record of attacking police on several occasions, whenever cops tried to arrest from their homes.