Delhi: Jailed gangster Jitender Gogi arrested under MCOCA

NEW DELHI: Jailed gangster Jitender Gogi, who has recently been found operating freely from behind the bars, was arrested on Thursday under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) by Delhi Police’s Special Cell.
Gogi’s right-hand man, Kuldeep Maan alias Fajja, was recently gunned down after fleeing from GTB Hospital while being in custody, prompting reports that Gogi might also try to flee to run the gang. Of late, he had forged an alliance with Dubai-based gangster Sandeep alias Kala Jathedi. He also figured in an extortion bid of Rs 5 crore from a Dubai-based businessman.
Under MCOCA, Gogi’s activities in jail can be reigned in more effectively and surveillance can be more stringent. Getting a bail will also be difficult.
Gogi is being investigated by a team led by DCP Pramod Kushwaha, which is probing an FIR against the gangster filed in 2018 under MCOCA. He has been taken on remand for questioning.
The MCOCA proposal details 19 cases of murder and attempted murder, besides dozens of extortions, dacoities, carjackings and robberies. Police have said Gogi, now 30, had started dealing in property after dropping out of school and taken to crime after his father’s death in 2010.
“He fired at a man named Praveen in September 2010. Then, during elections at Shradhanand College, Delhi University, Gogi and his friends assaulted and shot at two men named Sandeep and Ravinder. Gogi was then arrested in October 2011. Thereafter, he... formed a gang to earn money,” the FIR stated.
Gogi has been arrested in a number of cases with the same set of gang members, it added. In 2016, he was arrested by Panipat police but fled from custody while being taken to court later.
In February 2017, he murdered one Devender Pradhan from Alipur as Pradhan’s son was involved in the murder of his associate, Niranjan. In October, Gogi killed popular Haryana folk singer Harshita Dahiya, a prime witness in a murder case lodged against his close associate, Dinesh Karala. He was caught last year. A teacher, Deepak, was murdered outside a corporation-run school in November and one Ravi Bhardwaj in Prashant Vihar this January by Gogi’s gang.
The MCOCA FIR states all his earnings were spent in buying weapons and SUVs, which were used in committing more crimes.