SENSATIONAL HAZARIBAGH COURT SHOOTOUT WORKED OUT; MOST WANTED GANGSTER OF COAL-BELT OF JHARKHAND ARRESTED
A team of Special Cell led by InspectorsUmeshBarthwaland KailashBishthas arrested most wanted gangster of the coal belt of Jharkhand namely VikasNathTiwari,aged 28 yrs, s/o ShambhuNathTiwary, r/o Village Patratu, District Ramgarh, Jharkhand and has worked out the sensational 2nd June 2015 outrageous shootout in Hazaribagh court complex wherein this gangster had orchestrated the killing of the chief of his rival gang namely SushilSrivastavawho was sprayed with 30 bullets fired from an AK-47 assault rifle. Accused VikasTewari has been arrested u/s. 41 (1) of Cr PC in the morning hours of 2nd August 2015 from Chelmsford Road while he was on his way to the New Delhi Railway Station to catch a train for leaving Delhi.
Incident: On 2nd June 2015, a man with an AK-47 rifle had sprayed bullets inside a court complex in Jharkhand’s HazaribaghDistrict, killing three people, as a two-decade-old gang war for dominance over a lucrative extortion business in the eastern state flared up. Gangster SushilSrivastava and two of his henchmen were killed in the daytime shooting, while a police constable and a civilian were injured after the man riding pillion on a motorcycle opened fire.Officials said the killings were spurred by the bitter feud between Srivastava’s syndicate and the BholaPandey gang, as they jockey for a bigger share of the pie in the trade of extracting protection money from coal merchants in the Ranchi, Ramgarh and Hazaribagh districts.Chaos reigned at the site with people running helter-skelter fearing further shooting as the three bodies lay sprawled on the floor in a pool of blood. An injured constablehad retaliated and shot the attacker on his leg. However, after leaving the weapon, the perpetrators managed to flee the scene on a motorcycle.
A witness had reported that as soon as a police van had reached the area carrying prisoners including SushilSrivastavato attend court hearings, gunshots rang out at the court campus.Within seconds, three people fell to the ground with blood oozing from all over their bodies.
Officials had confirmed that the gang war dates back to the late nineties when the deceased SushilSrivastavahad challenged the BholaPandeyled gang’s supremacy over the extortion racket as he had started gaining the upper hand by offering gratifications to police and sympathizers. In recurrent encounters between the two groups, Srivastava’s men had killed Pandey’s several aides before eliminating the rival leader in a shootout on the national highway connecting Ranchi to Hazaribag. At a time when it seemed that the Pandey group had been wiped out, his disciple VikasTiwari had pulled a surprise by avenging the killings by ruthlessly eliminating SushilSrivastava.
Profile of accused VikasNathTiwary: Accused VikasTiwariwas born in VillagePatratu, District Ramgarh, Jharkhand. He has studied upto 10th class. After initially working as a building contractor in the area, he came close to his relatives’ uncle BholaPandey and cousin brother Kishore Pandeywho were running anorganized extortion racket in the area of Hazaribagh, Ranchi and Ramgarh since early 2000. VikasTewari, impressed by the clout of these gangsters and the cash that was flowing in, he joined their syndicate as a full blown member in late 2006.
When Vikas had joined the Pandey gang, the SushilSrivastava syndicate, which had emerged as a powerful rival, was also gaining rapid footholds. SushilSrivastava was an erstwhile protégé of BholaPandey who had split ranks and was challenging his mentor in many ways more than one. There was a spate of encounters between these two blood thirsty gangs resulting in various killings of members of both gangs. VikasTiwarywas first arrested in August 2008 after announcing his arrival on the stage by brutally killing one Laltu, a close associate of SushilShrivastava. He remained in jail for 1½ years.
In Hazaribagh jail, Vikas earned himself a name as the next star of the Pandey syndicate. However, soon after his release on bail, in February 2010, BholaPandey, the patriarch of the syndicate, was shot dead while being in Police custody by SushilSrivastava’smen when he was being taken from Dumka to Ranchi for a court appearance. This incident had exposed the growing clout of SushilSrivastava.
The brazen killing of BholaPandeyescalated the enmity between Kishore Pandey, the heir to BholaPandey and SushilSrivastava. Now, VikasTewari was the second in command of his syndicate and soon, got involved in over 10 cases of extortion registered in Hazaribagh and Ramgarh districts.
The killing of BholaPandey was yet to be avenged. This saw further killings from both the sides and Kishore Pandey assisted by Vikas managed to target and neutralize many members of SushilSrivastava’s syndicate. However, the cunning SushilSrivastava struck back with vengeance and in October 2014, when Kishore Pandey was going to meet his family at Jamshedpur, he was entrapped and brutally shot dead by Sushil’s henchmen. This killing had been orchestrated by SushilSrivastavawhile himself being in jail.
Seeing no end to the woes inflicted by SushilSrivatava on his syndicate and their business, VikasTewari assumed charge of his men and soon, brought in desperate shooters like Raj Singh and PradeepPaswan within his fold. The overground business of keeping accounts and finances of the syndicate was entrusted to one Babloo Thakur. The youth of VikasTewari and his profile as an excellent communicator saw many local criminals and budding ruffians join his syndicate.
However, SushilSrivastava was still alive and VikasTewari knew that till the time he was eliminated, there was no security of his own life and future of his syndicate. VikasTewari trusted his most capable sharp shooters Raj Singh and PradeepPaswan to plan the ultimate kill. Raj Singh was paid Rupees 30 Lakhs to execute an outrageous plan. PradeepPaswan arranged for AK-47 assault rifles as anything short would be of no use since SushilSrivastava always used to be accompanied by a strong contingent of police while moving from jail to courts and vice-versa.
On 2nd June 2015,on the day of the execution of the blood-battle, Raj Singh and PradeepPaswanalongwith associates came to HazariBaghcourt on motorcycles. VikasTiwarikept his presence just outside the court to see the plan being executed. As soon as SushilSrivastavaand his associate Gayasuddin were brought to the court premises in high security, the attackers opened an indiscriminate volley of fire from AK-47 rifle and automatic pistols. Both SushilSrivastava and Gayasuddinwere killed on the spotalong with another under trial criminal who had suffered fatal injuries. In the gunfire, some civilians and a police staff had also suffered serious gunshot injuries. A case u/ss. 186/353/307/302/120-B IPC and Arms Act was registered at PS Sadar, HazariBaghin this regard. As an intense hunt was initiated for VikasTiwari, he went into hiding and availed services of various gang members located in Kolkata, Darjeeling, Dehradun etc. to avoid arrest.
After ShambhuNath, father of VikasTewari was arrested on charges of being involved in the court killing conspiracy, Vikas decided to shift base to Delhi and towards the end of July 2015, came to Delhi. He continued making threat calls to various coal belt clients located in Ranchi, Hazaribagh, Dumka etc. who kept on shelling out money for protection of their lives as now, VikasTewari was the undisputed don of the area. However, he ran out of luck when the Special Cell got a whiff of his presence in Delhi and mounted a professional operation to apprehend this most wanted gangster and successfully arrested him.
The Jharkhand Police has been informed of the arrest. Further investigation is in progress.
(Sanjeev Kumar Yadav)
DCP/MAC/Special Cell
Source: Delhi Police (PR CELL)
