Hours after gangster Deepak Pahal alias Boxer was brought back to India from Mexico’s Cancun city by the Delhi Police, a court sent him to eight-day police custody. Deepak was arrested from a hotel by the Mexico Police, FBI, and Delhi Police on Monday. He has been booked in over 10 murder, robbery, and extortion cases. The Delhi Police Special Cell registered another case after he allegedly fled from the country using a fake passport this January. A 20-day operation was led by the Special Cell assisted by the FBI and Mexican Police to zero in on Deepak’s location and arrest him. Police said he was going to leave Mexico soon and was trying to enter the US illegally. “It would have been much more difficult to catch him from the US. His cousin Sandeep is in California, and his associates are also in the US and would have helped him hide,” said an officer. Deepak reached Delhi early on Wednesday and was produced before a court. While the police had asked for full 14-day custody, the court only granted eight days. Special Cell’s Special Commissioner of Police HGS Dhaliwal said, “He made a fake passport in Bareilly and went to Kolkata. He left in January using the same fake passport to fly to Dubai, from where he travelled to five countries to reach Mexico. In Mexico, he was helped by human traffickers. They had asked for Rs 40 lakh to cross the border and reach America. We caught him right on time.” Sources told The Indian Express that police had caught Deepak’s associates in January-February who revealed that he was running the infamous Gogi gang from Mexico. Soon, police arrested the men who made the passport. “Nobody knew where he was staying. Technical surveillance was mounted on his phone, his routers and other devices. It was then found that he was in a Cancun hotel. In less than 20 days, we sent the officers from India to make an arrest. The FBI was also roped in,” added the officer. Sources revealed that Deepak thought he was held for a fake passport and would be detained. Delhi Police said it was later that Deepak realised the joint operation of the agencies and that he was being taken to India.
