Int'l Taekwondo player-turned-gangster nabbed by Delhi Police

New Delhi, Jan 8 (IANS) Delhi Police's Special Cell arrested an international black belt Taekwondo player-turned-gangster for having underworld connections, an official here said on Saturday.

The gangster, identified as Ajay Gurjar alias Bhai ji, has been previously involved in more than 24 criminal cases including murder, attempt to murder, extortion, assault, riot, criminal intimidation and Arms Act in Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Mumbai in Maharashtra.

The accused has won 8 gold medals at national level and also won a silver medal at the International Taekwondo championship in Bhutan in 2003.

Ajay finished at fifth in another International Taekwondo championship held in Mumbai in 2005.

The police officials said that Gurjar is a person of high aggressiveness, dominance and violence.

Due to his peculiar nature, he started picking fights with people on petty matters. He had stabbed a person in 2004 during a fight and was then sent to jail. After coming out from jail, he got associated with criminals and started demanding extortion from wealthy people in the area.

Currently, he is a highly dreaded and ruthless criminal in Delhi NCR.

Sharing details of the operation, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP)(Special Cell), Jasmeet Singh, said, the accused was had absconding for four months in a case of Special Cell in Delhi. In the said case, Satender, an associate of Ajay, was earlier arrested by the Special Cell in August lasy year, but Gurjar went underground to evade arrest. A trial Court had issued non-bailable warrant and further process under 82 CrPC against him.

In August last year, an audio call between two persons got viral. In the audio call, Satender was found asking his associate Gurjar to arrange an AK-47 rifle to execute the killing of a member of a rival gang. During the said call, Satender was also mentioned about causing serious harm to one Deputy Superintendent of Central Jail at Tihar Delhi to avenge the death of their close associate namely Ankit Gujjar in jail with the alleged connivance of jail staff.

Last year, on August 4, Ankit Gujjar was found dead with multiple injuries on his body inside the said premises of Central Jail No. A3 and his family members had alleged that he was killed in jail.

Currently, as per Delhi High Court's directions, the investigation of said case is being conducted by the Central bureau of Investigation (CBI). After the arrest of Satender on August 17, Ajay was identified as the caller on other end in the viral audio call.

On January 6, the Special Cell received a tip-off about his arrival at the Badarpur bus stand on Mathura Road, to meet one of his associates. Based on this crucial information, a trap was laid and the accused Gurjar was apprehended from the spot along with one semi automatic pistol of .30 bore with five live cartridges.

Sharing more details about the accused's alleged connection with the underworld, the DCP said JP Gurjar, cousin of Ajay, who also has underworld connections, sent him to Hafij Baloch, a dreaded gangster in Mumbai.

Notably, Hafij Baloch with his associates had shot dead Jubair Patel alias Katya Don in 2008. After this, Hafij came to Delhi and stayed in Ajay's house and his cousin JP Gurjar. After committing several extortion here, Ajay then went to Mumbai and stayed with Hafij.

He was highly impressed by the luxurious life lead by Hafij and other gangsters. Since then, Ajay has had strong criminal connections with four notorious gangsters namely Hafij, Iqbal Ibrahim Kaskar, Subhash Thakur and Arif Jaan in Mumbai.

Ajay was given the code name of Bhai Ji by Hafij after he started working with him. In 2010, Hafij introduced him to Iqbal, brother of Dawood Abrahim, who later introduced him to Subhash Thakur, another notorious gangster of Uttar Pradesh and Mumbai.

A year later, he was introduced to Arif Jaan, brother in law of Chhota Shakil by Hafij Baloch.

It has been learnt that Ajay with his associates including Subhash Thakur, had demanded huge amount of money from doctors, businessmen, a councillor, two former ministers of Haryana and their relatives between the year 2008 to 2018 in Haryana and Rajasthan.

He had also shot the nephew of Karan Singh Dalal and Shivcharan Lal Sharma, both ex- ministers of Haryana and one Chandi Ram Gupta, councillor of Palwal district in 2012, when they refused to pay money. The police said that further interrogation of the accused is still on, adding that the facts revealed by Ajay in his disclosure statement are also being verified.