3 min readNew DelhiOct 18, 2024 01:55 AM IST
First published on: Oct 17, 2024 at 10:36 AM IST
The second shooter who was at large after allegedly shooting dead a 34-year-old gym owner in South Delhi’s GK-1 was arrested early on Thursday following a brief encounter on the Mathura highway, Delhi Police said. He sustained a bullet injury on his left leg in the shootout, they added.
Police said the accused, 26-year-old Yogesh aka Raju, is known to be part of Lawrence Bishnoi and Hashim Baba gangs. Intelligence was received that Yogesh would be in the Mathura Refinery area between 4 am and 5 am on October 17. “At 4.25 am, an Apache bike entered the Agra-Mathura highway service road. The driver was recognised as Yogesh and was asked to stop and surrender. However, he started unprovoked firing,” DCP (Special Cell) Manoj C said.
The accused was fired upon in response, leading to an 11-round exchange between the police and Yogesh. “Yogesh fired five rounds at the police and was fired upon six times, leading to a shot in his left leg. He was taken to the Civil Hospital in Mathura and was then arrested,” the DCP added.
Afghan national Nadir Shah was shot dead outside his gym in GK-1 on the night of September 12. While seven accused — Akash Yadav, Nitalesh Tiwari, Vishal Verma, Naveen Baliyan, Mohammed Sajid, Pankaj Kumar and Sachin Yadav — were eventually arrested, the shooters Madhur aka Mota Armaan, and Raju had been absconding ever since.
On October 12, Madhur was arrested in an intense encounter in Delhi’s Narela area.
Officers said that Yogesh was a habitual offender and was first jailed in 2018 for stabbing a boy to death in Uttar Pradesh’s Kasganj. He arrived in Delhi after being released on bail in 2022.
“He started working with the gang of Cheenu Pehelwan, who was Hashim Baba’s rival. He left the gang because of remuneration issues and joined Baba in 2023,” a police officer said. Yogesh has been named in five FIRs, including four in UP and the GK-1 case in Delhi.
Investigation so far has pointed to purported Bishnoi links behind Shah’s murder, police said. According to officers, the Bishnoi gang was not happy with Shah’s friendship with a Dubai-based businessman and had targeted him in August as well. But the plan was dropped at the last minute.
“Shah was in a call centre business with the friend. Bishnoi demanded Rs 5 crore from the businessman following which the latter approached Shah to bail him out. Shah had become a police informant after 2018, and hence tried to negotiate with Bishnoi. However, Bishnoi threatened Shah and asked him to stay out of the matter or face consequences. As punishment, he also increased his ransom demand from the businessman to Rs 25 crore,” a police official aware of the matter said.
Nadir Shah was shot dead on September 12. 
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