Delhi Police 'determined' to take action against organised crime: Commissioner Asthana

By Ujwal Jalali

New Delhi, Sep 24 (IANS) Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana on Friday asserted that the force is determined to act against any organised criminal activity in the national capital.

Asthana's comments, in an interview with IANS, came against the backdrop of Friday's dramatic murder of most wanted gangster Jitender Singh Mann, alias Gogi, in a Delhi courtroom by two assailants from the rival Tilu gang, dressed in lawyers' garb.

"The police is completely determined and if any organised crime activity happens in Delhi, then effective legal action will be taken against the criminals," he said.

Asthana apprised IANS that the case has now been transferred to the Crime Branch. "The Crime Branch and the Special Cell of Delhi Police will now investigate whatever incident happened today as such an incident is not possible without proper planning," he said.

He assured that there will be a full investigation into the and appropriate legal action will be taken.

The city police chief also that that Gogi's gang used to run extortion rackets and he was arrested some time back. As such gangsters have tried fleeing from the police custody, he said, the police team had taken a very strong squad to the court to prevent such an eventuality.

He said that both the assailants were quickly neutralised by an "effective counter move" of the police personnel present there.

As gangster Gogi was being presented in the Rohini court for hearing in a case against him, the assailants suddenly took out their weapons from under their lawyer's robes and opened fire at Gogi, who collapsed immediately.

A lawyer, who was inside the courtroom at the time of the incident, told IANS that everything happened so fast that they were not even able to take a breath.

"The firing began just seconds before the hearing in the case of gangster Gogi. Even Judge Gagandeep Singh was sitting inside the courtroom," he said, adding that there was utter chaos in the courtroom.

The police personnel guarding Gogi immediately retaliated and gunned down the attackers. "There was an exchange of at least 30-35 rounds of fire between the cops and the attackers," an eyewitness said.

Sources said that the attackers were from the Tilu Tajpuria gang and the Delhi Police's Special Cell had input about the possibility of such kind of an incident.