Around 2:20 am on Thursday, Ranjan Pathak, Bimlesh Mahto, Manish Pathak and Aman Thakur came out of their white Baleno at the Bahadur Road in Rohini. Headed by one of Bihar’s most wanted, Ranjan Pathak, these were the members of Sigma and Company gang. After conducting five contract killings, they were now being chased.
A team of about 15 police personnel from the Special Task Force (STF) units of Delhi and Bihar were on their toes.
An encounter ensued — they fired at the police, got fired at, and died, putting an end to what had been a year- long pursuit for the Bihar Police.
“They arrived in Delhi on October 13. The Bihar Police approached with information four days ago and that’s when we started to track them,” a police officer who was part of the investigation said.
At the site of the shootout in Delhi’s Rohini on Thursday. (PTI)
After receiving the information, the Delhi Police started tracking the movements of the accused. The surveillance of their devices showed that they were frequenting between Paschim Vihar and Sherpur Village in the Karawal Nagar area.
“Aman had rented a flat in Sherpur area of Karawal Nagar in Delhi. The four used to reside in it whenever in the Capital. The flat is in an area where migrant laborers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh reside, which gave the accused a good cover,” a police officer said.
According to Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Surender Kumar, following a tip-off, joint teams of the Delhi Police Crime Branch, led by Deputy Commissioner of Police Sanjeev Yadav, and the Bihar Police, led by sub-inspector Pankaj Yadav, laid a trap from Dr Ambedkar Chowk to Pansali Chowk in Rohini at 2.20 am.
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Regarding the recent criminal activities carried out by the gang, ADG Krishnan said that one Aditya Kumar was shot dead by Ranjan Pathak and his associates on July 18 in the Bajpatti police station area. (Express Photos)
On seeing the police personnel, the accused, who were aboard the white car, got out of the car and ran in four different directions. Three police SUVs chased them down, with one of them chasing Pathak. Soon, Pathak fired, a police officer said, followed by the other three.
“In retaliation, the police teams also opened fire in which all four accused received bullet injuries. Over 50 rounds were exchanged between both sides. Five firearms were recovered from the accused,” Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Surender Kumar said.
The accused were taken to the nearby Ambedkar Hospital where doctors declared them dead on arrival.
