Dehradun, February 27 Two members of the notorious Sunil Rathi gang, who were allegedly involved in extorting businessmen in Haridwar and Dehradun, have been arrested, police said on Friday.
A joint team of Uttarakhand Police Special Task Force (STF) and the Dehradun Police apprehended the two men in a car in the Rajpur area late Thursday night while they were acting on a tip-off received through their surveillance of active gangs and notorious criminals lodged in jails.
STF Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Ajay Singh said that Bhanu Chaudhary and Paras Singh, both from Uttar Pradesh, were present in the vehicle that the police stopped.
Two illegal pistols and seven live cartridges were recovered from their possession.
A case has been registered against them at the Rajpur police station under Section 111(3) of BNS and Section 3/25 of the Arms Act.
The SSP said that during interrogation, they admitted to their attempt to extort money from businessmen in Haridwar and Dehradun.
Singh was formerly a key shooter for gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari's gang and for his aide Sanjeev Jiva. But after Ansari and Jiva died, he joined their rival, the Sunil Rathi gang.
The officer said that Singh's mobile phone records revealed that he was in constant contact with Rathi, who is lodged in Pauri jail, and that he was extorting money at his behest, targeting high-value disputed lands in Haridwar and Dehradun.
It was also learned that Singh and Chaudhary had been visiting Rathi in Pauri jail.
The SSP said that Singh, a shooter for several gangsters, has eight serious cases registered against him in Muzaffarnagar and Dehradun, including murder, attempted murder, criminal intimidation, property fraud, and under the Gangsters Act.
He said that during the investigation, the name of a controversial property dealer from Haridwar, who was in constant contact with Sunil Rathi, also surfaced. He added that this property dealer had previously been jailed in a murder case.
The SSP said that the two criminals were constantly harassing people, but no complainants were coming forward out of fear.
