The lure of becoming rich and then settling abroad is drawing several young and ambitious women to the world of organised crime, where they act as a conduit to transfer weapons to sharpshooters and honey trap the targets, according to a senior Delhi Police officer.
The police data show that they have arrested under the Arms Act 28 women this year so far, with a majority of them associated with criminal groups run by dreaded gangsters. The police had arrested nine women under the Act last year.
“These women, mostly in their early 20s, were desperate for opportunities to climb the ladder to a better life,” said the officer, adding that such women generally come from families belonging to the lower strata of society. They live in areas populated by students studying for competitive exams.
Another official said one such case was that of 19-year-old Anu Dhankar, arrested in the murder case of a Burger King outlet owner in west Delhi.
She hails from Haryana and lived with her mother and brother after her father passed away some time ago. Her brother works in the Delhi Police.
A CCTV footage showed her talking to the victim, Aman Joon, moments before he was killed.
Police investigation revealed that she had joined the Himanshu Bhau gang a few months ago after coming into contact with its leader through a social media platform.
The gang is being operated from Portugal by Himanshu Bhau.
“Her main task was to honey trap targets and make them come to the spot where sharpshooters of the gang would fire at them,” said the officer.
The police said Dhankar maintained multiple Instagram profiles with pseudonyms. One of these was in the name of Preeti Gulia and she used the account to contact multiple criminal groups before her foray into the world of crime.
“Prior to this, she had come under the police radar after her cellphone was used to issue threats, following which the Special Task Force had reached her home in Rohtak for interrogation,” recalled the officer.
However, she absconded and reappeared before the murder.
“She lived in a rented accommodation with other students here and would operate from dingy lanes of the area,” the officer added, adding that she was arrested by the Delhi Police’s Special Cell on October 25 from Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri while trying to cross over to Nepal.
Leading the charge
The police said this does not stop here. Some women are also leading the criminal groups after the arrest of their spouses.
Kajal Khatri, arrested on September 18 in Haryana’s Sonipat this year, is one such gang leader.
She had been hiding since January this year and operated the gang, established by her husband Kapil Mann, for the past five years.
Mann was arrested in September 2019, the year they tied the knot. They both had met in 2016 when she was a Staff Selection Commission (SSC) aspirant living in Delhi’s Rohini. Mann at that time used to train at a gym near her residence.
According to the police, Mann is a close associate of Lawrence Bishnoi, whose gang is alleged to have been behind the murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala and Maharashtra politician Baba Siddique.
“Kajal used to visit Kapil every Tuesday and Friday till December last year in Tihar Jail to take directions from him for other gang members,” an officer said.
“Kajal would not only act as a messenger, she actively kept tabs on activities of gang members. She used to hire members through social media platforms,” said the officer.
She stopped visiting her husband after she came on the police radar in January this year, he added.
The Crime Branch investigation revealed that Khatri appointed Naveen, a sharpshooter, to kill Suraj Mann, the brother of Parvesh Mann, a member of the rival Neeraj Bawana gang.
The police said before entering the world of crime, she was desperately looking for a job.
“After failing to complete her graduation from Hansraj College in Delhi, she joined a nursing course in 2019,” a police officer said.
She had also cleared the Central Teacher Eligibility Test in 2023.
Anuradha Choudhary, alias Madam Minz, is another woman gang leader who had hit the headlines earlier this year when she married gangster Kala Jathedi, currently lodged in Tihar Jail.
Also known as Revolver Rani, she is out on bail in multiple cases of kidnapping, extortion, Arms Act and money laundering.
Earlier, she used to work for the slain gangster, Anand Pal Singh of Rajasthan.
“Trained in computer sciences, Anuradha was Anand Pal’s English teacher,” said a Delhi Police Special Cell official.
She came to know as Madam Minz after her marriage with Deepak Minz, with whom she parted ways in 2013, said the officer.
“Anuradha has been close to Kala Jathedi for many years. They were once arrested together from a dhaba near the Yamuna Nagar-Saharanpur highway,” he said.
Published – November 03, 2024 01:10 am IST
