New Delhi: Making a dent in the Gogi-Dinesh Karala network, Delhi Police has recently raided multiple locations across three states and arrested five of its shooters, arms suppliers and financiers from northwest Delhi’s Rohini and Hapur in Uttar Pradesh.“A 9 mm Glock, an Italian Beretta and a Turkish zoraki procured in order to be used during gang wars were seized, apart from 14 firearms and over 100 cartridges,” special commissioner of police (law and order) Ravindra Singh Yadav said on Thursday.Police sources believe that the arms haul has helped avert a major gang war in the capital. A probe has revealed that members of the Gogi-Karala network — Karala has been running it from Tihar jail — have been aggressively procuring such illegal firearms and ammunition to assert their dominance over the Tillu Tajpuriya and Chichad gangs.Police in Rohini received were tipped off that Rahul Mathur, a key financier of the gang, would come near a metro station in Rohini to meet an associate, Manjeet. Cops laid a trap and intercepted Mathur on April 26. “He attempted to flee in his SUV by driving on the wrong side of the road, but was caught and overpowered by a team led by inspector Sandeep Godara,” said joint commissioner of police Vijay Singh, adding that he is involved in five criminal cases.Based on Mathur’s interrogation, his other associates, Kunal alias Kuku and Aditya, were apprehended. During a probe, it emerged that Surender alias Kala was the primary supplier of illegal weapons to the Gogi-Dinesh Karala gang.Surender is believed to have supplied more than 600 illegal weapons over the past four to five years, operating as a key node in the arms supply chain from Hapur and a crucial link in enabling the expansion of organised crime networks in the capital.Surender is in Rohini jail in connection with an arms Act case. Acting on fresh evidence, police obtained a production warrant from the court and arrested him in the present case as well.“Acting on his inputs, cops conducted raids in Hapur in UP, where Iqbal, another arms supplier, was arrested on Thursday. He used to supply weapons to multiple criminal networks operating across Delhi-NCR, and has seven criminal cases of similar nature registered against him,” police said.The Gogi-Dinesh Karala gang has been “showcasing” its weapons on social media platforms to intimidate rivals and lure impressionable youth into its fold, police added.
