Delhi At Ransom

Consider this: On August 29, at around 11 pm, three boys, all in their twenties, landed at the East Delhi house of Ranjan Gupta (not his real name), an upcoming businessman. They claimed they had come from Allahabad and said they wanted to see Gupta urgently. As it was late, Ranjan told his chowkidar to tell the boys to come the next day. At which, one of the boys scribbled a 14-digit cellphone number (009715-06860727) on a piece of paper and told the chowkidar: "Yeh Dubai ka number hai. Gupta sahib se kahna is par baat kar lein (This is a Dubai number. Tell Gupta to call)." Then, he pulled out his revolver, rubbed it on his denim trousers, before zipping off in a Gypsy with his friends.

The style of operation a la Satya, typified by the Mumbai underworld, was unmistakable. It was proof that the underworld was preying on new victims in new territories. Such incidents have alarmed the Delhi Police enough to prompt it to set up an anti-extortion cell - a recommendation of additional commissioner of police B.K. Gupta after consultations with the Mumbai Police last fortnight.

Incidentally, according to sources, a couple of months ago, the IB had warned the home ministry that the Mumbai underworld was planning to expand. Their new targets: upcoming businessman, successful professionals like doctors, architects, TV artistes in Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Indore and Delhi. A number of reasons, including recession and the slump in the real estate business, were cited in the report.

Ranjan Gupta, of course, was unaware of all this, and the 'message' from the underworld came as a bolt from the blue. Realising that he was in big trouble, Gupta roped in some "influential people in business and politics" to broker peace with the underworld kingpin. What he found out was even more shocking: a minister in the Kalyan Singh cabinet, negotiating on behalf of the extortionists, tried to convince Gupta that "they are demanding Rs 2 crore but ek derh karor tak baat karva dete hein (they will agree to Rs 1-1.5 cror e)".

Not willing to take a chance, Gupta hired an ex-black cat commando for Rs 27,000 a month, apart from fortifying his house and office by putting up iron grills and heavy locks. Also, he started carrying a loaded revolver round the clock. He also found out that 90 per cent of the businessmen he contacted had had some dealings with the underworld. "I got the shock of my life when I found that most of them had either paid or had a good rapport with the underworld," says Gupta. For obvious reasons, Gupta and the others don't want to come out openly against the extortionists. That is the reason why most extortion cases go unreported in Delhi.

Gupta panicked all the more as the cell-phone number he was given belonged to Sanjay Khanna, a key member of the Babloo Srivastava gang, who had spent around five years in a Mumbai jail and quietly slipped to Dubai after he jumped bail recently. In Dubai, right under the nose of godfather Dawood Ibrahim, his former henchman Irfan Goga and Sanjay Khanna were overseeing Babloo's crime empire and organising extortion in India. After Irfan Goga's reported killing by Dawood's men last fortnight, Sanjay Khanna is all set to take over—though Goga's death is a mystery as his body has not yet been recovered.

In another incident of extortion in Delhi, Pradip Garg of Saraswati Vihar got a call from Irfan Goga some time ago. The underworld had got wind of his wealth and demanded an undisclosed amount of money—warning of "serious consequences" if the demand was not met.It was not without reason that Garg's name figured on the underworld list: he is a big-time rice exporter and has business dealings in Dubai. Garg also made the mistake of showing off his wealth in a swanky lifestyle—he often flashed his "American Express card with a credit range of $30,000 anywhere in the world". In the end, the Delhi Police had to provide him with armed escorts.

Fortunately for Gupta and Garg, a little less than a month after the incident, this group of young men, controlled by Goga and Khanna, were arrested after a shootout in south Delhi. Posing as Customs officials, Jaspreet Singh alias Ginni, Sunil Nautiyal alias Sonu, Pradeep Dahiya, Karamvir Tyagi and other gang members, pounced on Subhash Rastogi, another businessman with a high annual turnover, in his Kailash Colony office on September 21. When Rastogi challenged them, Ginni pulled out his revolver and fired several shots, injuring three people, including Rastogi. The gang managed to flee but was later arrested.

Interestingly, the police claimed that Ginni was arrested in Delhi but sources confirm that he was picked up from his uncle Lovely's place in Lucknow. Lovely is close to the UP minister who tried to buy peace for Gupta. Ginni told the police that each boy was promised Rs 1 lakh each, and that they were working for Irfan Goga. The boys, however, claim they have no idea who Irfan Goga or Sanjay Khanna are.

IN most cases, the man at the lowest rung doesn't even know the name of the gang he is working for. But the brief is clear: don't go soft on your victims—if threats don't work, kidnap the person. Interestingly, in most cases the victims have dealings with the underworld, willingly or under duress.

The pattern is clear: the young and uninitiated are drawn to the world of crime by the godfathers of the underworld. Mostly, with the lure of money and a good life. So, educated, English-speaking boys like Sanjay Khanna and Virendra Pant (a table tennis champion at Rai sports school, currently lodged in Mumbai jail in connection with several cases of kidnapping and murder) and young, ambitious girls are dragged into the net to work for some gang or the other. "We don't have to go around hunting for new hands; they come to us on their own. Because of the magnitude of unemployment in the country," claims Khanna.

Take the case of Archana Sharma, 22, a committed member of the Babloo Sriv-astava gang (she handles kidnappings and ransom deals). She had wanted to become a singer, and, like so many others, landed up in Mumbai. She joined Baba Sehgal's group, but things went out of her control when she got engaged to a man called Miglani, who had links in Dubai. Both went to Dubai where she met Irfan Goga who was then working for Dawood as a hawala operator. Later, Archana's relations with Miglani got strained and she approached Goga to fix him. Goga started exploiting her and finally sent her to India to work for Babloobhai in tandem with another kidnapper, Fazal-ur-Rahman.

Slipping from one network to another, Archana was arrested by the Delhi Police along with seven associates near Green Park when they were "planning to kidnap several people". That was the beginning. Once out on bail, she kidnapped Jagdish Moti Ramani of Indore and demanded "a couple of crores". Another sensational kidnapping was organised by her singlehandedly in Mumbai. Using her charm, she lured R.D. Vyas of Kandivli east to a flat where her armed gang members were waiting.

With the arrest of Dawood aide Romesh Sharma, Goga's name came up more prominently in the list of dons who have fallen out with Dawood. According to Goga's men, Romesh Sharma had duped him of a hefty amount of money. But Sharma told the police that Goga wanted to get him killed. Till then Goga was one of the numerous faceless hawala operators working for Dawood. "Irfan Goga, Sanjay Khanna or Ginni, we all work for Babloobhai," Khanna told Outlook from Dubai. He disputed the fact that Babloo—who is now behind bars—was ever part of the D-Company.

To begin with, the presence of the underworld in Delhi and other parts of northern India is not a new phenomenon. But then earlier it was a mere presence—in the shape of tantrik Chandraswami, Babloo Srivastava, Romesh Sharma and scores of other small-time operators. It has now blown into full-time extortion activity, endangering the peace of the Capital. The erstwhile organised gangs headed by Sunil Tyagi, Mahinder Fauji, Madan Bhayya and D.P. Yadav look benign in comparison—they were more like petty, rural bandits with local 'Robin Hoods' as leaders.

Underworld operator and Babloo Srivastava's hitman Khanna justified their course of action, in a telephonic conversation with Outlook, from Dubai. "We target only those who have dealings with the underworld—those who have earned money overnight through unfair means like drug smuggling etc." The fact remains that in order to make a fast buck, upcoming businessmen do use the underworld. "Sanjay Khanna is not entirely wrong.

Certain businessmen keep close links with gangsters like Harishankar Tiwari and Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhayya, both ministers in the Kalyan Singh government in UP," says a Delhi-based businessman. Gangsters like Raja Bhayya, Harishankar Tiwari, Mukhtar Ansari and their ilk have established themselves in the political cradle but their relationship with the underworld remains as good as ever.

But most cases go unreported as most people getting extortion calls from the underworld avoid going to the police fearing retaliation. The victims first try to settle the matter through someone in the business—and there are people willing to mediate and get their cut in the process. Even if an FIR is registered, the complainant refuses to identify the culprits at the time of trial. Recently, at least seven gangsters, led by Babloo Srivastava's girlfriend Poonam Bhagat, were acquitted in a kidnapping for ransom case after the complainant, Sikandar Lal Pahwa, a big hotelier of Delhi, refused to identify them in court. Pahwa told Outlook: "I am out of the whole matter now; I don't want to utter a word about it." What he didn't mention was that he paid up Rs 2 crore to Poonam's gang.

In fact, the increase of underworld activities in Delhi—with a certain degree of immunity—coincided with the advent of P.V. Narasimha Rao onto the political spectrum in 1991 after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. Then prime minister Rao's old friend, Chandraswami, became powerful and openly patronised criminals. Inspired by their leader's connections with Chandraswami, Rao's cabinet ministers also doled out sops to criminals and their associates. The then minister of state for home, Ram Lal Rahi, recommended security cover to Babloo Srivastava's girlfriend Poonam Bhagat.

Almost all criminals active in north India today claim that they were initiated into the world of crime in the sprawling ashram of Chand-raswami. Even Khanna admits he worked for Chandra-swami as a young boy. He told Outlook: "I lived near Chandraswami's ashram and used to visit him. He wanted to get me killed through Babloo Srivastava but Babloobhai told me to go out of Delhi for some time." This explains Khanna's continuing loyalty to Babloo. When Khanna realised that Chandraswami could get him eliminated through somebody else, he decided to take the plunge into the world of crime. Khanna is defensive: "I really had no other option. Chandraswami could have asked somebody else to kill me. I thought it would be better to take up the gun rather than falling to somebody else's bullet. Ek bar bandook haath mein aa gayi to kya Chandraswami aur kya koi doosra (If you are armed, you can face up to anyone, Chandraswami or whoever)."

That just about sums up the mood and recklessness of the underworld, striking terror in the minds of the nouveau riche class of Delhi.