Alleged gangster Neetu Dabodia was killed in an encounter with Delhi Police last night
One of the capital's most wanted men, an alleged gangster who had dramatically escaped from custody last year by tying up policemen and snatching their guns, was killed in an encounter late last night near a prominent hotel in south Delhi.
Neetu Dabodia was accused in over 50 cases of murder, extortion and kidnapping and carried a reward of Rs one lakh.
On Thursday, his luck ran out.
At around 11 pm, Dabodia and two of his associates were shot dead in a 30-minute encounter near the hotel Grand Hyatt in Vasant Kunj, right next to a mall complex buzzing with Diwali shoppers at this time of the year.
Surrounded by the police, they first tried to escape by ramming into the cops' vehicles, then allegedly opened fire. The police say they were forced to return fire, in which all three men were hit. They reportedly died on the way to hospital.
One of Dabodia's associates has been identified as Alok Gupta.
The morning after, bloodstains on the road remained the signs of the gunbattle that killed one of the men on Delhi's top 10 Most Wanted list.
The police claim Dabodia was preparing for a "big strike", and they had laid a trap for him after a tip-off that he would visit the area.
The police in Delhi as well as Haryana have been trying to catch him for years for multiple cases in both states. The manhunt intensified after Dabodia allegedly killed a Delhi police head constable in December.
He had escaped from the custody of the Haryana Police in April last year, while being taken from a court hearing back to jail in Gurgaon near Delhi.