Newsroom24x7 Desk

New Delhi: A team of Special Cell of Delhi POlice has arrested Vikas Nath Tiwari (28), the most wanted gangster of the coal belt of Jharkhand.

The arrested gangster Vikas Tiwari, son of Shambhu Nath Tiwary, is from Village Patratu in Ramgarh district of Jharkhand. He was wanted for the sensational 2 June 2015 shootout in Hazaribagh court complex. He had orchestrated the killing of Sushil Shrivastava, the head of his rival gang, who was sprayed with 30 bullets fired from an AK-47 assault rifle.

Tiwari was arrested by a police team led by Inspector sUmesh Barthwal and Kailash Bishtunder section 41 (1) of CrPC today morning from Chelmsford Road while he was on his way to the New Delhi Railway Station to catch a train and was about to leave the capital.

On 2 June 2015, a man with an AK-47 rifle had sprayed bullets inside a court complex in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh District, killing three people, as a two-decade-old gang war for dominance over a lucrative extortion business in the eastern state flared up. Gangster Sushil Shrivastava and two of his henchmen were killed in the broad daylight shooting. while a police constable and a civilian were also injured as the man riding pillion on a motorcycle opened fire.

Officials said the killings were spurred by the bitter feud between Shrivastava’s syndicate and the Bhola Pandey gang, as they jockey for a bigger share of the pie in the trade of extracting protection money from coal merchants in the Ranchi, Ramgarh and Hazaribagh districts. Chaos reigned at the site with people running helter-skelter fearing further shooting as the three bodies lay sprawled on the floor in a pool of blood. An injured constable had retaliated and shot the attacker on his leg. However, after leaving the weapon, the perpetrators managed to flee the scene of the crime on a motorcycle.

A witness had reported that as soon as police van had reached the area carrying prisoners including Sushil Srivastava to attend court hearings, gunshots rang out at the court campus. Within seconds,three people fell to the ground with blood oozing from all over their bodies.

Officials had confirmed that the gangwar dates back to the late nineties when the deceased Sushil Shrivastava had challenged the Bhola Pandey led gang’s supremacy over the extortion racket as he had started gaining the upper hand by offering gratifications to police and sympathizers. In recurrent encounters between the two groups, Srivastava’s men had killed Pandey’s several aides before eliminating the rival leader in a shootout on the national highway connecting Ranchi with Hazaribag. At a time when it seemed that the Pandey group had been wiped out, his disciple Vikas Tiwari had pulled a surprise by avenging the killings by ruthlessly eliminating Sushil Shrivastava.

Vikas Tiwari’s Profile

VikasTiwari was born in Village Patratu in Ramgarh district of Jharkhand. He has studied upto the 10th class. After initially working as a building contractor in the area, he came close to his relatives’ uncle Bhola Pandey and cousin Kishore Pandey who were running an organized extortion racket in the area of Hazaribagh, Ranchi and Ramgarh since early 2000. Vikas Tiwari, impressed by the clout of these gangsters and the cash that was flowing in, joined their syndicate as a fullblown member in late 2006.

When Vikas had joined the Pandey gang, the Sushil Shrivastava syndicate, which had emerged as a powerful rival, was also gaining rapid foothold in the area. Sushil Shrivastava was an erstwhile protégé of Bhola Pandey who had split ranks and was challenging his mentor in many ways. There was a spate of encounters between these two blood thirsty gangs resulting in various killings of members of both gangs. Vikas Tiwari was first arrested in August 2008 after announcing his arrival on the stage by brutally killing one Laltu, a close associate of Sushil Shrivastava. He remained in jail for one and half years.

In Hazaribagh jail, Vikas earned for himself a name as the “next star of the Pandey syndicate”. However, soon after his release on bail, in February 2010, Bhola Pandey, the patriarch of the syndicate, was shot dead while being in Police custody by Sushil Shrivastava’s men when he was being taken from Dumka to Ranchi for a court appearance. This incident had exposed the growing clout of Sushil Shrivastava.

The brazen killing of Bhola Pandey escalated the enmity between Kishore Pandey, the heir to Bhola Pandey and Sushil Srivastava. Now,Vikas Tiwari was the second in command of his syndicate and soon, got involved in over 10 cases of extortion registered in Hazaribagh and Ramgarh districts.

The killing of Bhola Pandey was yet to be avenged.This saw further killings from both the sides and Kishore Pandey assisted by Vikas managed to target and neutralize many members of Sushil Shrivastava’s syndicate. However, the cunning Sushil Srivastava struck back with vengeance and in October 2014, when Kishore Pandey was going to meet his family at Jamshedpur,he was entrapped and brutally shot dead by Sushil’s henchmen. This killing had been orchestrated by Sushil Srivastava while he was himself in jail.

Seeing no end to the woes inflicted by Sushil hSrivatavaon his syndicate and their business, Vikas Tiwari assumed charge of his men and soon, brought in desperate shooters like Raj Singh and Pradeep Paswan within his fold. The over ground business of keeping accounts and finances of the syndicate was entrusted to one Babloo Thakur. As Vikas Tewari was a youth and an excellent communicator, many local criminals and budding ruffians joined his syndicate.

As Sushil Shrivastava was still alive and Vikas Tiwari knew that till the time he was eliminated, there was no security for his own life and even the future of his syndicate in jeopardy. Vikas Tewari entrusted his most capable sharp shooters Raj Singh and Pradeep Paswan with the task to plan the ultimate kill. Raj Singh was paid Rupees 30 Lakh to execute the outrageous plan. Pradeep Paswan arranged for AK-47 assault rifles as anything short would be of no use since Sushil Shrivastava always accompanied by a strong contingent of police while moving from jail to courts and vice-versa.

On 2 June 2015, on the day of the assassination, Raj Singh and Pradeep Paswan along with associates came to Hazaribagh court on motorcycles. Vikas Tiwari was present outside the court to see the plan being executed. As soon as Sushil Shrivastava and his associate Gayasuddin were brought to the court premises under high security, the attackers opened indiscriminate fire from an AK-47 rifle and automatic pistols. Both Sushil Shrivastava and Gayasuddin were killed on the spot along with another under trial criminal who had suffered fatal injuries. Following this, a case under sections 186/353/307/302/120-B IPC and Arms Act was registered at Sadar Police station in Hazaribagh and an intense hunt was launched for Vikas Tiwari, who went into hiding and availed services of various gang members located in Kolkata, Darjeeling, and Dehradun to avoid arrest.

After Shambhu Nath, father of Vikas Tewari was arrested on charges of being involved in the court killing conspiracy, Vikas decided to shift base to Delhi and towards the end of July came to Delhi. He continued making threat calls to various coal belt clients located in Ranchi, Hazaribagh, Dumka and other places. Those threated kept on shelling out money for protection of theirl ives as Vikas Tiwari had emerged as the undisputed don of the area. He ran out of luck when the Special Cell of Delhi Police got a whiff of his presence in the national capital and mounted a professional operation to apprehend this most wanted gangster and successfully arrested him.

The Jharkhand Police has been informed of the arrest and further investigation is in progress.