In an Instagram post, Deepak Boxer, one of the country’s most wanted gangsters, claims responsibility for the murder of builder-hotelier Amit Shah.
Boxer asserted that he had arranged the killing with jailed gangster Dinesh Karala and had his hitman execute it. Gupta was allegedly killed because he was associated with Gogi’s rival, Tillu Tajpuria. He was also accused of providing information about Kuldeep Fajja, one of his associates who had been killed after fleeing and escaping custody. After Karala’s imprisonment, several cases arose, including the murder of a Haryanvi singer named Harshita Dhaiya.
While the Instagram post confirms the Delhi Police’s investigative findings on the Gogi gang’s involvement, the shooters have not been arrested even two weeks after the attack. The investigation into Gupta’s murder has gained momentum after it emerged that the gunmen from the same gang were involved in the Mundka double murder, in which two innocent people were killed due to mistaken identity. The shooters in this incident are also at large.
The Gogi gang and its rivals are extremely active on social media and use it effectively for their propaganda and blackmail operations. Putting a stop to this activity will now be an important task for the cyber cell.
On the investigation status in both cases, senior officials said they had made some arrests and that the hunt for the shooters was underway.
Gangs on social media
Social media has been found to be used by a large number of feared gangsters in jails across the country to run their gangs, threaten rivals, commit crimes, and then boast about those crimes. Despite the police’s efforts to control the gangsters’ nefarious activities, they are repeatedly found threatening their rivals, planning and executing murders, and even celebrating after their aides commit crimes.
As part of a murder investigation into a shooting outside a government employee’s house in Aman Vihar in July 2020, Delhi police detained a shooter. According to the shooter, Dinesh Karala, a gangster in Tihar Jail, provided him with instructions on Facebook messenger.
Lilu regularly received phone calls from jail from a gangster who claimed to be Karala. The gangster assigned him murder assignments.
The violence that broke out near the Red Fort near New Delhi on January 26, 2021, during a farmer’s tractor rally during anti-farm laws protests, was allegedly triggered by Lakha Sidhana, a former gangster turned activist. To find the social media profiles that spread the motivating messages, Punjab Police and security agencies searched for them. According to security agencies, most of the social media accounts linked to gangsters are spreading misinformation through social media.
Security agencies have found several accounts running in dead gangsters’ names. Security agencies shut many of these accounts down, but similar pages and content continue to appear. These accounts were run by their close associates.
Two young men were killed in broad daylight in their car in Punjab’s Ambala in March 2021 due to a ‘wrong target killing’. Unidentified miscreants shot them dead in broad daylight. On March 25, 2021, Davinder Bambiha’s family members claimed the killing was revenge for his murder at Panchkula in 2017. Punjab Police investigated the claims made in a Facebook post on March 26, 2021, stating that gang members killed two innocent people because of a misunderstanding.
It is again apparent that criminals use social media to commit heinous crimes. On May 29, Punjabi singer and rapper Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu, also known as Sidhu Moose Wala, was killed. According to police, Sidhu’s murder resulted from an old gang rivalry resulting from the deaths of Vicky Middukhera, an Akali Dal worker, and Gurlal Brar, a close associate of Lawrence Bishnoi in Canada.
Goldy Brar claimed a gangster based in Canada, Lawrence Bishnoi, had taken responsibility for the murder of the singer in a Facebook post allegedly written by him. As he explained, the murder of Moose Wala resulted from his involvement in the murder of Bishnoi’s two gang members. Goldy Brar is also reported to be close to Lawrence Bishnoi, who is currently in Tihar jail in Delhi.
New briefings introduced
It will now be necessary for police to obtain details about arrested gangsters’ social media accounts – Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Signal, and Wickr – as well as their financial transactions so that they can tap into their networks and gather information on their associates. Rakesh Asthana, Delhi Police Commissioner, conveyed this to the force.
In May, Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala was killed, and several Delhi Police Special Cell teams were unaware of those working under jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi – the prime accused – and their latest social media handles, according to the report. The decision to upgrade the interrogation process was taken after that incident.
The Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Hargobinder Singh Dhaliwal gave a presentation to the Police Commissioner at a recent crime review meeting, recommending that the interrogation report of organized gang members include additional information. Additionally, he shared proformas with the IOs and asked them to search for information about social media accounts managed by the arrested individual and gang members affiliated with him.