‘Lost touch years ago’: Gangster deaths draw silence in village

GREATER NOIDA: Billu and Rakesh Dujana were neighbours before they were gangsters.
The two -- both 35, wanted in dozens of cases and gunned down in separate encounters with the Ghaziabad police early on Saturday -- were from the same village, Dujana in Dadri, living barely 500 metres apart.
On Sunday, Dujana was silent, almost eerily so. Their families sat outside their houses, and spoke little. They said they were not in touch since the two went into a life of crime -- Billu at 18 and Rakesh at 21.
“Billu had left the house years ago. He has been killed… there is no point in discussing the issue,” his uncle, who did not want to be named, told TOI. Other members of Billu’s family refused to talk.
At Rakesh’s house, located in the middle of the village where most are dependent on farming, the family was gathered outside on the verandah.
Rakesh, who joined Billu’s gang in 2017, was the eldest among three brothers. His younger brother, Adesh (32) is a farmer, and the youngest (24), a constable in Uttar Pradesh police. His father Jaipal Singh was in the Army and retired a few years back.
Adesh told TOI Rakesh left school after Class 10. He pivoted to “anti-social activities and lost touch with us… he hasn’t visited us for years,” he said. Rakesh’s family performed his last rites on Saturday evening after police informed them about the shootout. “We don’t want to comment any more on this,” Adesh said.
Around 3.45am on Saturday, Billu was fatally injured after he and his aide tried to dash past a police check post on Pusta Road in Indirapuram, but rammed his motorcycle on a fence and opened fire at the police. While his aide managed to escape, Billu died of two bullet wounds at a nearby hospital.
Fifteen minutes later and 20km away, in Madhuban Bapudham, two men asked to stop at a checkpost opened fire at the police and sped. One of them was Rakesh. After taking a U-turn towards Bunkar Chauraha, Rakesh’s aide got off and disappeared but Rakesh kept firing at the police. Police said he sustained two bullet injuries in the retaliatory fire and died at a hospital later.
According to police, Billu was wanted in over 27 cases of murder, extortion, robbery and the Arms Act in Ghaziabad and nearby cities. Of late, the two of them were also threatening businessmen and builders to extort money, they said.
The most recent crime that they were wanted for was a double murder. On April 20 this year, Ghaziabad police found the bodies of property dealer Jitendra Singh and his friend, Munendra Singh, a government employee, at an empty plot in Kavi Nagar.
In Dujana, few residents agreed to speak about the gangsters but one who did said it was a revenge killing.
Billu believed his elder brother Arun was killed by the two men in 2017, and he wanted to strike back, the villager said without elaborating. One of Billu and Rakesh’s accomplices was arrested by police earlier in the case.
Other residents said the two gangsters and previous links to the Anil Dujana gang – of which both Billu and Rakesh were originally members -- had brought a bad name to their village of 25,000 people.
The elders are now trying to encourage youngsters to focus on education, said village chief Ranpal Pradhan. “We opened a library recently. A few months back, a student also cleared the judicial service exam, and two others got good ranks in NEET. We are hopeful,” he said.