The Hindu : Front Page : Former junior cricketer, accomplice held

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 27, 2006
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Former junior cricketer, accomplice held

Staff Reporter

Arms recovered from the car they were traveling in South Delhi

NEW DELHI: Two young men, including a national level junior cricketer, have been arrested by the Special Staff of the Delhi police for their alleged involvement in extortion, robbery and snatching. The police claim to have recovered a pistol, a knife and a Tata Indica car from their possession.

Murder plan

A team of the Special Staff recently received a tip-off that certain criminals from Sonepat in Haryana were planning to eliminate a Gurgaon-based gangster when he would be produced in a court there. Some of the conspirators were found to be operating from South Delhi.

The police zeroed in on two suspects and intercepted them on Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road when they were going in a Tata India car on Saturday. They were arrested under the Arms Act after the police recovered a pistol and a knife from them.

The accused were identified as Vikas Dahiya (26), who had represented India in South Africa as a member of the under-20 cricket team in 2000, and Satender (27), both residents of Sonepat.

During interrogation, the accused disclosed that some people had recently offered them Rs. 50 lakhs to eliminate one Surjeet, who is lodged in a jail.

Over 100 cases

Deputy Commissioner of Police (South Delhi) Anil Shukla said that Vikas, once a bright cricketer, was involved in more than 100 cases of snatching in the Capital and had been arrested on a couple of occasions on charges of possessing smack.

Cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and of snatching have been registered against him at different police stations in South and South-West Delhi.

"It seems that he has now graduated from snatching to other crimes like extortion. We suspect that he has developed links with some Haryana-based gangsters. He revealed that he and his accomplices extorted money from truck drivers through their men deployed at the Kapashera toll-tax booth," said Mr. Shukla, adding that the accused had also made money by taking possession of disputed properties.

About Satender, Mr. Shukla said he had spent five years in jail and was suspected to be a close accomplice of a dreaded criminal, Sundre Jat, who was killed in an encounter with the Delhi police.

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