NEW DELHI: The double murder in west Delhi's Mundka on Tuesday was most probably ordered from a city jail. The assailants were allegedly acting on instructions from jailed gangster Ankesh Lakra and wanted to eliminate a satta operator, Satish, police suspect.
However, they ended up killing a wrong person, and the other deceased and the third person who got injured in the melee are believed to be unintended victims. The cops on Wednesday questioned Lakra, lodged in Mandoli prison, and detained two suspects late on Wednesday.
Lakra, an associate of gangster Deepak Titar, is a member of the Gogi gang. Lakra had helped gangster Kuldeep Fajja escape from custody in March last year. Fajja was gunned down by Special Cell days after his escape while Lakra was arrested from the spot.
Lakra's name cropped up during the questioning of Satish, who was apparently the real target. He claimed that he had been getting extortion calls from the jailed criminal.
Police are also close to getting a breakthrough in the murderous attack on hotelier and retailer Amit Gupta, who was shot multiple times in north Delhi's Burari on Tuesday noon. This, too, may have been orchestrated from jail, the cops suspect. One of the shooters, who reportedly belongs to Sonipat, has been identified and teams are conducting raids to nab him.
Gangster Tillu Tajpuria is one of the suspects being investigated in the case as he had threatened Gupta a few months ago for not paying protection money. Gupta had also bought land in Alipur and Tajpuria allegedly wanted a cut. When Gupta refused to pay and cited his connections with senior police officers, Tajpuria was allegedly infuriated, and the cops suspect that this could have made him plot the attack. However, police are probing other angles as well.
Gupta is still stated to be critical. Of the four bullets that hit him, one is still lodged in his body while the others were removed in a surgery, the cops said. The analysis of CCTV footage shows that the shooters had arrived at least 15 minutes before Gupta reached there. They ran on foot for about 600 metres after the incident and went towards outer Delhi areas like Narela and Alipur. Police questioned Gupta's driver and bodyguard, and while the former seemed to have been caught unawares, the guard claimed he was on his way to meet Gupta after completing personal work.
