A Delhi court on Monday sent ex-Delhi legislator Rambeer Shokeen — arrested on Sunday under the stringent MCOCA on charge of running an organised crime syndicate — him to three-day police custody.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sumit Dass allowed the Delhi Police to quiz Shokeen till December 1.
“Shokeen, who was declared a proclaimed offender, was arrested on Sunday evening from Yuva Shakti School at Rama Vihar in Karala in outer Delhi at 6:30 pm. He is an uncle of jailed gangster Neeraj Bawana,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Pramod Kumar Kushwah.
The other accused in the case are Bawana, Pankaj Sehrawat, Sunil Rathi, Rahul Dabas, Naveen Dabas alias Bali, Naveen Hooda alias Bhanja, Amit Malik alias Bhura, Gurpreet Singh and Deepak Dabas alias Deepa — who were charge-sheeted under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in October 2015.
Bawana was arrested on April 7 last year from west Delhi’s Mundka area and is in judicial custody with eight other accused.
Police chargesheet said all the accused are running a crime syndicate involved in extortion and murders, apart from land grab and settling of property disputes. Police said Bawana is kingpin of the racket while Shokeen is the political face of the syndicate.
The chargesheet terms Bawana as a “symbol of lawlessness” and Shokeen as the “political face” of the syndicate. Running into 2,334 pages, the chargesheet mentions Bawana as the “kingpin”. Shokeen has been accused of “using the clout” of Bawana and other criminals to contest the assembly election to “further his political ambitions and gaining pecuniary benefits.”
Police have listed 163 people as prosecution witnesses and stated that the gang has so far been involved in around 148 criminal cases.
The gang committed crimes to foot the expenses of its jailed members, for establishing criminal as well as political supremacy and for lavish lifestyles of its members, the chargesheet details.
On Shokeen’s role, police said he was instrumental in harbouring and financing syndicate members. “During investigation, Neeraj Sehrawat stated that he had spent over Rs one crore during the December 2013 Delhi assembly elections for his maternal uncle Rambeer Shokeen. Similar expenses were incurred for the 2015 elections wherein Reeta Shokeen, Rambeer’s wife, was contesting,” said the chargesheet.