Ghaziabad: A member of Bawariya gang, facing charges in 18 cases of robbery, house theft, attempt to murder and dacoity, was shot dead by police during a gunfight in Niwari on Wednesday. The accused, Dharmendra, carried a Rs 1,00,000 bounty on his head. Fifteen rounds were exchanged, in which three head constables were shot at, police said.Additional DCP (Crime Branch) Piyush Kumar Singh told TOI that the Crime Branch operation team received a tip-off from a special informer that Dharmendra and two of his associates were travelling along Ganga Canal route in the Niwari area, and a SWAT team was deployed to set up a cordon on the embankment area.“Around 6 pm, a motorcycle was seen coming from the Ghaziabad side with three persons on it. When an attempt was made to stop them, the men turned left at high speed and fled towards Meerut on the embankment. As the crime branch operation team chased the men, their bike slipped on an unpaved path and the riders fell. The men left the bike and took cover behind trees and opened fire on the police team,” Singh said.In the firing, three police personnel, including head constables Amit Kumar, Vineet Kumar and Himanshu Malik, were injured. Bullets hit the bulletproof vests of sub-inspector Pradeep Kumar and head constable Varun Veer Singh, while one shot fired by the accused missed in-charge crime branch operation team inspector Anil Kumar, the additional DCP said.“As the police team retaliated, one of the criminals was injured, but the other two managed to flee,” Singh said.Dharmendra and the injured policemen were taken to the community health centre in Muradnagar and referred to the district hospital from there. Doctors declared Dharmendra dead during treatment.According to the crime branch, 18 cases, including robbery, house theft, attempt to murder and dacoity, were registered against Dharmendra over the past 10 years at police stations in Ghaziabad, Shamli, Baghpat, Muzaffarnagar and other districts. A native of Amroha who lived in Loni, he carried rewards of Rs 50,000 each announced by Ghaziabad and Baghpat police.Police suspect Dharmendra was behind the Nov 8, 2024, house break-in case in Khekda police station area of Baghpat. His name also surfaced in a similar case in the area on June 27, 2025, and a Rs 50,000 reward was announced for his arrest by the deputy inspector general of police, Meerut Range.Dharmendra’s name also came up in the June 29, 2025, house robbery case where unidentified persons had entered a house in the Masuri police station area of Ghaziabad and attacked the owner. A case was registered at Masuri under sections 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 118(1) (voluntarily causing hurt or grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means) and 109(1) (attempt to murder) BNS, and the additional police commissioner (crime headquarters, Ghaziabad) announced another reward of Rs 50,000 for his arrest.In 2019, Shamli police announced a reward of Rs 15,000 and Ghaziabad police Rs 25,000 for his arrest. Ghaziabad police had arrested him that year in an encounter in which he suffered a bullet injury to his leg. He later managed to escape.
