GURUGRAM: The encounter of cop-turned-gangster Balraj
Bhati (43) in Noida on Monday was the outcome of a three-month-long manhunt by the Haryana
STF, claimed cops on Tuesday.
Sources said the STF, which is probing Balraj’s role in at least two cases of murder and extortion in Faridabad, had put into use a strong intelligence network that tipped off cops last week about Bhati’s plan to visit Noida to extort money from a target. “The informers had also provided a recent photo of Bhati, his Swift car’s registration number and the route he was supposed to take,” said a cop.
Eventually, acting on the tip-off, the STF, with the help of Noida
police, managed to gun down Bhati, a former hit man of the dreaded Sunder Bhati gang, after a 30-minute chase through Sectors 37 and 41 in Noida.
“We had been trying to catch him for the past three months. We knew it was a golden chance, and we could not falter this time. Thus, after getting the concrete information, we planned the operation with the help of UP Police. We wanted to catch him alive but he did not give in. He kept on firing and was killed in the encounter,” STF SP B Satheesh Balan told TOI.
From Noida, according to the informers, Bhati had plans to go to
Palwal for his next target, a businessman. And police believe other members of the Bhati gang, including the two aides who were accompanying the gangster in the Swift car on Monday but managed to flee during the encounter, would now try to complete the Palwal assignment.
“They had plans to extort money from a businessman and create terror in Palwal. We suspect that Bhati’s accomplices, who escaped the encounter, would try to complete the job now,” added Balan. The police have stepped up vigil in the area to foil any such attempt by the Bhati gang members, he added.
A former Delhi police constable, Bhati turned into a ‘most wanted’ criminal after losing his job in 2006. He was allegedly involved in at least 19 cases of murder, attempt to murder and extortion in Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad, Faridabad and Delhi between 2007 and 2017.
On June 7 last year, Bhati had managed to give cops the slip when a team of Faridabad police arrested six members of his gang after a brief encounter at Anjana colony near Khandsa in Gurugram. According to sources, the gangster had also managed to frustrate an attempt by the Haryana STF to nab him recently.
“Balraj was a wanted criminal with more than 15 murder cases registered against him in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Haryana,” said Sumit Kuhar, DCP (crime).
IG (STF) Saurabh Singh said there were another 20 dreaded criminals on the police radar. “The encounter of Bhati is just the beginning. We have listed more than 20 criminals and all of them will be behind bars soon,” Singh said.
