Five months after he gunned down the wrong man in a Delhi market, a sharpshooter from the Lawrence Bishnoi gang was killed in a police encounter in Uttar Pradesh’s Hapur district on Wednesday night.
Naveen Kumar, who had more than 20 cases of murder, kidnapping and robbery against him, died in a joint operation by the Delhi Police Special Cell and UP Special Task Force (STF) around 10.30 pm in the Hapur Kotwali area, marking the first arrest in the mistaken identity murder case.
The gangster and his associate Sachin Golu had shot dead 52-year-old businessman Sunil Jain in Delhi’s Farsh Bazaar area last December, firing nearly half a dozen bullets as he returned home on his two-wheeler from a morning walk at the Yamuna Sports Complex.
Police later discovered that Jain was killed by mistake. The actual target was a man who, along with gangster Anil alias Sonu Matka, had planned the murder of Golu’s friend Akash Sharma.
The killing was part of a spiral of gang violence that began on Diwali when Matka and his aide shot dead Akash Sharma, 40, and his 16-year-old nephew Rishabh at their Farsh Bazaar home. A video of the double murder was uploaded on social media, triggering the revenge killing that claimed Jain’s life.
“While Matka was held in an encounter, Kumar and Golu managed to hide for months. Golu is still hiding,” a senior police officer said.
The case involved a deadly rivalry between the Lawrence Bishnoi and Hashim Baba gangs, with Matka being a close aide of Baba. Delhi police and UP STF had tracked down Matka to Meerut in December and killed him in an encounter.
A breakthrough came in February when police arrested Delhi Police sub-inspector Sukhbir Singh for helping the fugitives. “Based on technical surveillance and call records, we arrested sub-inspector Sukhbir Singh. We found he was helping Golu hide and sent him money,” the officer said.
Following Singh’s arrest, police intensified their search for Kumar and Golu. A tip-off revealed that Kumar had emerged from hiding in Hapur and was planning to target another rival gangster.
Additional director general of police (STF) Amitabh Yash said the joint team from STF Noida unit and Delhi Police special cell came under fire when they tried to intercept a group of armed men in the Hapur area around 10.30 pm.
“A gun battle followed in which Naveen Kumar was seriously wounded. He was taken to a nearby hospital, where doctors declared him dead,” Yash said.
The STF confirmed that Kumar was wanted in connection with a murder and Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) case registered at Delhi’s Farsh Bazaar police station.
Police records show Kumar’s criminal career spanned 17 years. He was first booked under the Arms Act in 2008 at Delhi’s Seema Puri police station, followed by a murder case in Sahibabad in 2009. By 2010, he faced charges under the Gangster Act in Uttar Pradesh.