Gang rivalry gobbled up four lives, including a woman passerby, and left five other critically injured in North Delhi’s Burari area on Monday. Police said Jitender Gogi, a notorious criminal carrying a reward of Rs four lakh on his head, was behind the attack on suspected members of his rival Tillu gang.
The case has been transferred to the elite anti-terrorist unit Special Cell as the criminals involved in the shootout are suspected to be inter-state criminals.
“Three persons were killed and five others were injured after suspected members of Gogi gang, believed to be involved in murder cases in the city, opened fire on four men coming out of a gym,” a North district police official said.
A senior officer, privy to the probe, said the incident could be the fallout of Gogi and Tillu gangs’ rivalry that begun in 2010 during the Delhi University elections.
However, a police officer of Special Cell said, “It cannot be said with certainty that the incident was the fallout of rivalry between members of Gogi and Tillu gangs. It cannot be said with certainty that the victims were members of Tillu gang. They are residents of Tajpur village here, which also happens to be the native place of Sunil, alias Tillu, the kingpin of Tillu gang.”
Police said around eight to nine rounds were fired by the Gogi gang members in a span of five minutes. It is suspected that Jitender Gogi, the kingpin of the Gogi gang was also in the car along with his gang members, they added.
It all started when four residents of Tajpur village -- Mukul, Himanshu, Jitender, Surender -- who were boarding a Scorpio vehicle after coming out of the gym, were hit by a Fortuner, which was allegedly driven by members of the Gogi gang, from the backside. The occupants of the Fortuner started firing indiscriminately on the Scorpio. While Jitender and Surender were in the car, Mukul and Himanshu could not get into the car when bullets rained on them. and started running to save their lives.
Jitender and Surender started driving to save themselves from the barrage of bullets being fired, Mukul and Himanshu started running to save their lives. However, Mukul was hit by bullets and died on the spot and Himanshu escaped with a bullet injury in the thigh, police said.
Jitender and Surender were found injured in the lane behind the place of incident. A motorcycle rider was hit by the Scorpio and died in the accident.
A 37-year-old woman, identified as Sangeeta, a passer-by, was also killed in the cross fire.
later, police found the Fortuner car outside Max Hospital, Shalimar Bagh, with a man’s body inside. He is suspected Sanjeet, a member of Gogi gang, though police are yet to confirm his identity.
Sanjeet had one bullet injury in his leg. He died due to excessive bleeding, police said.
The injured were identified as Himanshu, Jitender and Surender and two passersby Vashisht and Sachin.
Surender and Jitender are currently undergoing treatment at Max Hospital, Shalimar Bagh while Himanshu is at Sant Parmanand Hospital. The two injured passersby are in lNJP Hospital, police said.
“Mukul’s maternal uncle, Deepak, was allegedly killed by Gogi in 2015. Mukul was following up on that case and was arranging witnesses. Deepak allegedly had an affair with Gogi’s cousin and used to boast about it and say he is Gogi’s brother-in-law, which enraged the latter who killed him,” the officer said.