NEW DELHI: A 60-year-old man was shot dead at his residence in southwest Delhi's Dariyapur Khurd village in a suspected fallout of a long-standing feud between two gangs in the area, police said today.
The deceased, identified as Janakraj, was the father of a gangster, Rajesh alias Mogli, who is in jail. He was shot dead last night allegedly by the members of a gang headed by one Naveen Khati, a senior police official said.
The murder is believed to be the fallout of a gangwar between Khati, who is also in jail, and Mogli's associate Ravinder alias Bholu, a proclaimed criminal wanted in Delhi and Haryana.
"We have registered a case of murder and a team has been formed to nab the culprits. Several persons have been questioned," said DCP (Southwest) RA Sanjeev.
Mogli was one of several persons arrested in January last year for the murder of four youths of southwest Delhi's Mitraon village whose charred bodies were found inside a car in Haryana.
While one of the deceased was involved in an attack on Mogli's partner Bholu soon after his release from jail, another was the brother of Khati.
Thereafter, members of Khati's gang allegedly shot dead Bholu's uncle Rohtas. Four persons were later arrested in connection with the incident.
In November last year, police arrested four shooters of the Khati gang as they were allegedly about to gun down a member of Bholu's gang who was to appear as a witness in a case against the former at Dwarka court, a senior official said.
In December, Bholu's men had allegedly led an attack on a member of Khati's gang, who survived the incident.
Khati, who holds a diploma in electronics, was arrested in 2011 for the murder of three persons. Associates at one time, Khati and Bholu met again in Tihar jail where a fierce rivalry erupted between them accompanied by attacks on each other inside jail premises, a senior official said.
Bholu and Khati were recruits under local gangsters who were sheltered by the Anoop-Balraj gang of Dichaon Kalan village. Anoop and Balraj were siblings whose father, Surat Kane, was a land shark in south-west Delhi in early 90s.
Kane targeted one Prakash Gehlot who had hired Kishan Pehelwan as his muscleman. Pehelwan later formed a gang and became the arch rival of Anoop-Balraj.
Pehelwan later went on to become a councillor in Najafgarh area. His brother, Bharat Singh, a former MLA from Nafafgarh, was gunned down in March 2015.
The emergence of elements like Mogli, who were small-time criminals, occurred when several gangs -- including that of Khati and Bholu -- mushroomed as the Anoop-Balraj gang disintegrated after their death (Balraj in 1998 and Anoop in 2004) and started fighting among themselves, mostly for land, the senior official added.