New Delhi: Notorious gangster Deepak “Boxer”, who was nabbed in Mexico by the Delhi Police and brought here on Wednesday, was helped by another criminal who as part of a deal not only arranged his escape abroad but also spent Rs 55 lakh on the same.
A two-member team of the Special Cell with Deepak arrived at the Indira Gandhi International Airport from Mexico via Istanbul around 6 am, police said and termed the force’s first overseas operation to arrest a wanted criminal a “big success”.
Deepak was trying to enter the US illegally through Mexico, and planning to run his gang in Delhi and its neighbouring states from there, a senior police officer said, adding that his links to a Pakistani national are also being probed.
He will be interrogated in connection with his criminal activities and his alleged involvement in the killing of a builder in north Delhi’s Civil Lines area, the officer said.
Elaborating on the case, police said a person named Naresh helped Deepak escape from the country. Naresh from Ajanthali village in Haryana’s Sonipat was into liquor business with his brother.
Krishan Dadu, a contract killer, allegedly killed Naresh’s brother and brother-in-law and injured Naresh’s hand, they said.
Naresh is currently residing in Australia and his son Sagar in the US. Naresh hired Deepak in November last year to eliminate Dadu and a local informer. He promised Deepak that he would send him to the United States via Mexico through the ‘donkey method’ and spent Rs 55 lakh for the same, sources said.
“… Naresh had fixed a deal with Deepak that he would get him settled in the US. Naresh pursued Deepak to eliminate Dadu and the local informer as well members of the Tillu gang,” they said.
“Deepak agreed to this deal as he wanted to stay outside India and head the operations of the Gogi gang from there. This way, he would be away from the clutches of police as he feared that if he stayed in India, he would be killed by members of his rival Tillu gang,” the source added.
The source also said that Naresh and Deepak drew inspiration from the killing of Sidhu Moosewala where the main conspirators planned the murder from outside the country. Deepak was also confident that he would never be caught by the security agencies just like Goldy Brar who reportedly planned the murder of the popular Punjabi singer, they said.
“Naresh and his son Sagar also wanted to start their lives afresh abroad after getting all their rivals eliminated,” the source added.
Deepak is wanted in 10 cases, including murder and extortion, registered against him over the last five years, they said. Deepak, a resident of Gannaur in Haryana’s Sonipat district, led the Gogi gang after the killing of its head Jitendra Mann alias “Gogi” inside the Rohini court complex by two men in September 2021.
Deepak “Boxer”, a winner of a national-level boxing championship, was arrested after extensive work by police and with the help of US agencies, Special Commissioner Police (Special Cell) HGS Dhaliwal said.
“This is the first time that a gangster has been brought back to Delhi from another country. He was the most-wanted gangster of Delhi-NCR,” he said.
“Deepak 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 FBI (US’ Federal Bureau of Investigation) 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 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.
Deepak had changed routes several times and made stops to reach Mexico to enter the US (donkey method), Dhaliwal said. But he landed in the Special Cell’s net that was laid with the help of the office of the Legal attache, US Embassy, New Delhi, the officer said.
This is the first time that the Delhi Police has arrested a gangster in an operation outside the country.
Police had also announced a reward of Rs 3 lakh on information leading to the arrest of Deepak “Boxer”.
“We had received inputs in January that Deepak had 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 Turkiye. He then headed for Spain. After taking multiple routes, he finally reached Mexico,” Dhaliwal said at press conference on Tuesday.
“Our teams were constantly tracking his routes,” he had said.
Dhaliwal said the 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 had said.
