Gang wars, access to firearms test Delhi Police's Special Cell skills

With firearms being extensively used by criminals, the national capital has seen multiple cases of gang wars in recent weeks. However, Special Cell of Delhi Police may have just turned the game upside down with four encounters within nine days. ACPs (Assistant Commissioner of Police) Attar Singh, Manoj Dixit, Lalit Mohan Negi and Hirdaya Bhushan were directly involved in one or more cases of encounter which helped the police to nab serious offenders.

Manoj Dixit is the ACP with Special Cell's Northern range while Attar Singh, Lalit Mohan Negi and Hirdaya Bushan too are ACPs with Special Cell's Southern range.

It was last month when the national capital became a battleground for the criminal gangs who used firearms to eliminate one another. This battle of goons tested Delhi police and its vigilance over the national capital.

Other than the gang wars, there has been a spike in cases where criminals used firearms to evade arrest. This has resulted in increasing number of encounter cases. For instance, the Special cell along with the local police successfully arrested almost all criminals involved in the sensational gang war in Dwarka on May 19, where two criminals were shot dead, one by a rival gang and another by a policeman trying to nab the accused.

Only five days later, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Special Cell (Northern Range) Manoj Dixit along with the other staff of Special cell and local police found out the location of an accused. The team reached the spot to nab the gangster identified as Ankit Dabas. AS the team encircled Dabas, he started firing, in which one of the policemen was injured in the leg.

The police team led by Dixit then retaliated, and the accused was finally arrested.

The encounter was not the first in recent days. Some days back the Special Cell had nabbed another accused identified as Mohammed Arshu who was shot during an encounter with a team of Special Cell led by Mohan Negi and Hridaya Bhushan, both ACP-rank officers with Southern Range of Special Cell. The encounter was reported on May 22.

The Special Cell also nabbed another accused in a similar fashion where Sumit Tinka, an accused in various cases of murder and robbery was shot in the leg after he fired shots at the team. Tinka was nabbed by a team led by Attar Singh, which was continuously fired upon. The team then retaliated, leading to the arrest of Tinku.

In the recent case, a police team led by Lalit Mohan and Hridaya Bushan shot another accused identified as Rohtash Kumar in the arm, when he decided to evade arrest by opening fire at the police team. The incident was reported on Wednesday in the Khajuri Khas area.

(Rohan Agarwal can be contacted on rohan.a@ians.in)

--IANS

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