NEW DELHI: A dreaded gangster and member of Lawrence Bishnoi gang who had been involved in more than two dozen criminal cases including four murders was nabbed after a brief exchange of fire in the national capital, on Sunday, an official said.
The accused, identified as Neeraj alias Katiya, is the maternal uncle of Deepak Mundi, who is an accused in the gruesome murder case of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala. Mundi was nabbed by the Special Cell last year from the India-Nepal border. Deputy Commissioner of Police (special cell) Alok Kumar said that on receipt of specific information on the intervening night of March 4 and March 5 about the arrival of absconding gangster Neeraj Katiya to meet his associate near Qutub Minar metro station, a trap was laid in the surrounding area.
“The accused was spotted by a team of Special Cell and was signalled to stop. However, the accused Katiya started firing at the police. The police also retaliated and fired two shots at him. Luckily no one got injured and Katiya was overpowered and disarmed by the team. A semi-automatic pistol of .30 bore with two live cartridges was recovered from his possession,” the DCP said.
“He is active on Youtube and has uploaded many of his videos brandishing firearms on the social media site,” the official said. In the year 2009, Neeraj with his associates killed a rival in the liquor business in his village. In retaliation, the rival gang attacked him in 2016 and he received six gunshot injuries but survived. In 2014, he gunned down an Army man. In 2019, he killed a man in retaliation to an attack on his associates by a rival group.