NOIDA:
Balraj Bhati (43), who started as a Delhi police constable, soon turned into a ‘most wanted’ criminal, allegedly involved in multiple cases of murder, attempt to murder and extortion, in three states of UP, Delhi and Haryana.
While so far UP Police has released details of 19 cases against him — from Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad, Faridabad and Delhi, between 2007-2017 — special task force (STF) officers of various areas said the number should be higher.
Bhati first went astray when he lost his job with Delhi Police in 2006, soon after his involvement in a murder case came to light. His elder brother, with whom he did not have good terms, is in the Army.
Son of a farmer, he shot into infamy when he killed his fiercest enemy, strongman Pappu Katar from his native village Dhoosri under Shikarpur police station, Bulandshahr, on November 19, 2012.
According to police, Bhati had a personal rivalry with Katar, for apparently getting him beaten on charges of trespassing.
Soon after, he teamed up with Sikandrabad resident Sonu, and started taking supari (contract) to kill people, while still in Delhi Police. His first supari attempt was unsuccessful. He was caught and sent to
Bulandshahr jail in 2007. Here he met dreaded gangster
Sunder Bhati, who taught him tricks of the trade. Upon release, Balraj contacted Sunder Bhati’s right-hand man Singhraj, for whom he started killing people on supari. The slew of supari killings began with the shooting of one Jaiprakash of Sikandrabad.
After lying low for some time, he intercepted Pappu Katar’s car and shot him and his wife as many as 140 times. Along with accomplice Jitu, he then went on to shoot dead Gulab Singh, a crucial witness in the Katar couple murder, while the latter was in police custody on February 14, 2014. He proceeded to kill Vipin alias Lala on April 18, 2014, who was a witness to the murders of both the Katars and Gulab Singh.
“He also acted as a front man for legal toll operators in Gurgaon and Faridabad, and was involved in murders in Faridabad. Recently, he had tried to extort Rs 50 lakh from a Delhi-based businessman,” said deputy SP (STF, Noida) Rajkumar Mishra.
Balraj was also being tracked by
STF Gurgaon, since an
encounter in Gurgaon five months ago, from which he had managed to escape. “He is
wanted in Faridabad in two murder cases, and in Gurgaon, he has been declared wanted in an attempt-to-murder case. He was also involved in a recent incident firing in Hasanpur mandi,” said SP (STF, Gurgaon) B Sateesh Balan.
Over the last 3-4 years, Balraj had formed his own gang that operated in UP and Haryana, even as he continued working as a sharpshooter for the Sunder Bhati gang. Abhishek Singh, SSP (STF, UP) said Balraj Bhati was handling Sunder’s extortion business in Haryana, while also being involved in the liquor mafia.
Additional SP (STF, UP) Rajiv Narayan Mishra said Balraj was one of the Bhati gang’s main gangsters, and was on the radar of police in three contiguous states.
