Sundar Bhati was serving a life sentence for the murder of a Samajwadi Party leader. (Representational)
Notorious gangster Sundar Bhati, serving a life sentence for the murder of Samajwadi Party leader Harendra Nagar and his gunner Bhudev Sharma, has been granted bail by the Allahabad High Court and has gone underground since then.
Following his release from Sonbhadra jail, sources report that Bhati quietly boarded a flight from Varanasi to Delhi. He is believed to have since gone into hiding in Haryana, with a Special Task Force (STF) team from western Uttar Pradesh closely monitoring his movements, sources said on Saturday.
Bhati, regarded as one of the most influential gangsters in western Uttar Pradesh, is from Ghanghola village in Gautam Buddh Nagar district and has more than 60 cases of murder, attempted murder, extortion, robbery, and assault registered against him.
Before his detention in Sonbhadra, Bhati was held at Hamirpur jail, where he reportedly established contact with Sunny, one of three gunmen accused in the murder of gangster Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf in Prayagraj in April 2023. Bhati is said to have recruited Sunny into his network.
With this connection, Bhati's name has surfaced in investigations related to the Atiq-Ashraf case. Some reports suggest that Bhati facilitated the supply of Zigana pistols, a foreign semi-automatic firearm manufactured in Turkey, to the shooters involved.
Following Sunny's release from Hamirpur jail, he reportedly stayed in contact with Bhati's associates, ultimately obtaining a Zigana pistol through Bhati's network.
The gang leader's influence has reportedly grown following the encounter killing of his rival Anil Dujana in May 2023, just a month after the Atiq-Ashraf murder case.
With Dujana's death, Bhati is believed to have attempted to expand his control over the scrap business in western Uttar Pradesh.
In 2015, Bhati and his associates fatally shot SP leader Harendra Nagar and his gunner during a wedding event in Greater Noida.
In 2021, Bhati, along with 11 of his accomplices, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)