Latest news with #DelhiPoliceCrimeBranch
Time of India
3 days ago
- Time of India
Proclaimed offender held nine years after murder
New Delhi: Delhi Police Crime Branch has arrested a proclaimed offender who was absconding for nearly nine years in a gruesome 2016 murder case in Uttam Nagar. The accused, 33-year-old Antaj Ansari, was finally traced and apprehended in Mohali, Punjab. Originally from Bihar's Siwan district, Antaj was residing in Delhi's Om Vihar at the time of the crime. He was wanted for the murder of his landlord, Rahim alias Salman, whose body was found partially burnt, wrapped in a blanket, and tied with electric wires in a vacant plot on Nov 27, 2016. Police said the case was initially a blind one, with no leads. Forensic analysis and local intelligence later revealed that Antaj, Rahim, and an associate, Devender alias Chhota Balle, were drinking together when a heated argument escalated. "In a fit of rage, Antaj and Devender struck Rahim with an iron rod, followed by a brick, and then stabbed him with a kitchen knife," said DCP (Crime) Harsh Indora. "After ensuring he was dead, they wrapped the body in a blanket and dumped it in Mohan Garden. They returned the next day, confirmed the victim's death, and set the body on fire to conceal the identity. You Can Also Check: Delhi AQI | Weather in Delhi | Bank Holidays in Delhi | Public Holidays in Delhi The suspects fled to Assam and returned to Delhi after 10 days. In Dec 2016, they were caught while allegedly planning a robbery. During the arrest, they reportedly pulled out pistols but were overpowered by police. Two firearms and live cartridges were seized, and a separate Arms Act case was registered. While Devender stood trial, Antaj skipped proceedings and was declared a proclaimed offender in Dec 2024. Acting on a tip-off, police tracked him to Mohali and arrested him near a guest house on July 25.
India Today
5 days ago
- India Today
Delhi Police busts Rs 100-crore drug syndicate, Cameroonian kingpin arrested
A major international drug syndicate operating out of Delhi has been busted by the Delhi Police Crime Branch, which has arrested five foreign nationals allegedly linked to the network. The accused are citizens of Nigeria, Cameroon, and Cote d'Ivoire, and were apprehended from various locations in the national police seized 2.7 kg of cocaine, 1 kg of MDMA, 1 kg of cannabis, Rs 2.07 lakh in cash, a Honda City car, and forged Aadhaar cards during the operation. The total value of drugs seized so far is estimated to be over Rs 100 syndicate came under the police radar on June 13, when a suspicious parcel was intercepted at a courier office in Moti Nagar, Delhi. A search of the parcel revealed MDMA concealed in a woman's shoes and a suit. Investigations into the parcel led the police to uncover a high-tech drug distribution network with international links. The syndicate was allegedly operated by Callistus, also known as Kalis, based in Nigeria. From there, he coordinated operations across India, Australia, Japan, and Malaysia. In India, the delivery system reportedly mimicked food delivery apps, with orders, location sharing via WhatsApp, and cash collection all managed network operated at three levels: Level A handled stock and data management, led by two individuals named Godwin and Ibe. Level B managed cocaine processing, overseen by a person identified as Philipp. Level C handled ground-level deliveries, carried out by Koulaie and Kelechi. Orders and payments were managed via WhatsApp and hawala syndicate's leader is reported to have used women as couriers to smuggle drugs both within the country and internationally, allegedly to maximise profits and avoid group's earnings from the drug trade were routed to Nigeria through hawala channels. In India, payments were handed over to hawala agents, while in Nigeria, relatives of syndicate members received the equivalent amount in local currency. The syndicate reportedly charged a 5% commission on each five accused arrested in connection with the case are Kameni Philipp from Cameroon, who allegedly managed the Indian network; Colley Philipp from Cote d'Ivoire, identified as a specialist in party drug deliveries; Godwin John, a Nigerian national linked to MDMA supply; Victor, who arrived in India on a medical visa and later worked as a delivery agent; and Austin, who had reportedly been living illegally in India since to police, the syndicate's Delhi-based operations were part of a wider international network using digital tools for managing drug orders and payments. The case is under investigation.- EndsMust Watch
Indian Express
5 days ago
- Indian Express
Smuggled from Nigeria, ‘cooked' in Delhi, delivered at doorstep: Inside Rs 100-cr cocaine and MDMA racket
As soon as the call centre in Nigeria received a phone call from India, the operator noted down the request — how many kilograms of cocaine and MDMA were needed. Kallis, the call centre owner, would then send women to Delhi with packets of pure-grade narcotics taped to their bodies. From the Delhi airport, the Indian handlers of Kallis – of African origin – would collect the packets, process them in 'kitchens' at South Delhi's Chattarpur, and hand them over to 'delivery agents', also Africans. The agents would then prepare two batches of drugs, one to be transported to Australia and New Zealand, and the other for doorstep delivery in Delhi. This was how, the police said, an intercontinental drug smuggling network operated, where orders were placed to Nigerian call centres on behalf of Indian customers for street-grade cocaine and MDMA. On Friday, the Delhi Police Crime Branch said it has now dismantled the operation, by seizing drugs worth over Rs 100 crore and arresting five Nigerian nationals, who were allegedly working for cross-continental drug kingpin Callistus alias Kallis. The police identified the accused as Kameni Philipp, Adore, Victor, Kelechi Chikwe, and a person known as 'Tall Guy'. The police sniffed out the trail on June 13 when a constable tracked a package to a godown in Moti Nagar. The package, containing more than 800 grams of cocaine, was wrapped among packed suits. 'The parcel led us to Cameroonian national Kameni Philipp (44) in Rajpura. We recovered 2,012 grams of cocaine from his possession,' Additional CP (Crime) Mangesh Kashyap said. The police said that Phillip, who stays in Delhi with his wife and three children, had come to India in 2017 on a Nigerian passport. He returned to Cameroon in 2020 and came back again in March 2025 on a medical visa on the instructions of Kallis, his uncle. Police said Phillip was sent to Delhi to be Kallis' eyes and ears as his uncle didn't trust his India operator – a Nigerian named Adore (53). 'His (Phillip's) associate, Victor, supplied MDMA, which they packaged into parcels bound for New Zealand and Australia. Later, Kallis provided him with pure Colombian cocaine bricks,' said Additional CP Kashyap. According to police, Phillip distributed the cocaine in Delhi via Victor by using delivery boys — Kelechi Chikwe and 'Tall Guy'. 'The syndicate adopted a food delivery app-style model, dispatching deliveries based on live customer locations. Delivery agents followed a uniform dress code – checked shirts and black helmets – to maintain consistency,' Kashyap added. The money collected from the delivery agents was given to Phillip, who would facilitate a hawala-like network to rewire the money back to Kallis using a Nigerian shell company, said police. Kallis also allegedly provided money exchange services to Indians in Nigeria who wished to send cash home. 'He would collect the desired amount in Naira from Indian clients, and direct Phillip to facilitate the payment in rupees – made from the drug trade – to the relatives of the client in India, cleaning his drug money in the process… The syndicate charged a commission of 3-5% on each such transaction. In the last six months alone, over 85 crore Naira was used as part of these illicit cross-border transactions,' Kashyap said. Police said Adore was arrested from his Chattarpur kitchen with 146 grams of MDMA, 156 grams of cocaine and 1,028 grams of ganja. He has allegedly admitted to distributing 7 kg of cocaine and identified his associate Victor, a street-level distributor operating in Vasant Kunj. The police said that Victor admitted that Philip received 18 kg of pure cocaine from Kallis for distribution in India.
Indian Express
21-07-2025
- Indian Express
Who is Kusum, the drug queen of Delhi's Sultanpuri?
On September 11, 2008, Kusum (40), a resident of E Block in Outer Delhi's Sultanpuri, was arrested by the Delhi Police Crime Branch Narcotics unit for allegedly supplying smack in the neighbourhood. Kusum told the police that her husband, Manoj, was unemployed — and high on smack, all day and every day. Desperate to support herself and her four children, she contacted Manoj's supplier and got into the local drug business. Seventeen years and 11 cases later, Kusum is back in the news. On Saturday, the Delhi Police seized property worth Rs 4 crore belonging to her and her family in Sultanpuri and Rohini areas. Seven of these were in Sultanpuri, including a 'mini mansion' from where Kusum ran her drug supply chain network — which now included heroin, ganja, and tramadol tablets. Kusum, however, is missing. She has been on the run since March. Born in 1968 in Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr, Kusum never went to school. When she was 16 years old, her parents married her off to a man named Raju aka Surender, a worker-for-hire. He later moved to Sultanpuri with Kusum, a police officer said. In the early 1990s, Raju passed away due to a chronic illness. In 1992, Kusum married Manoj. A smack addict, he couldn't hold down a steady job, the officer said. The same year, the couple had their first of four children, Pooja, her dossier noted. Kusum would then give birth to Deepa in 1995, Amit in 1998, and Cheeku in 2001, another police officer said. Due to Manoj's deteriorating health, he started staying home for long periods. The family of six soon had no source of income. In 2002, Kusum obtained the contact of a local smack supplier through her husband and began dealing for him in Outer Delhi. By 2003, she was controlling the smack supply in three-four blocks of Sultanpuri. In June that year, she was booked for the time under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985. In September 2008, Kusum was arrested for the first time by the Narcotics division of the Crime Branch. She was released on bail in the same month, her dossier said. She would go on to expand her drugs business to include heroin. A senior police officer said that Kusum's brother, 'Danny', was also involved in the drug business. He would frequently travel between Bulandshahr and Outer Delhi, and would put Kusum in contact with Ashfaq, an alleged heroin supplier from Bareilly, the officer said. Kusum's dossier mentions Ashfaq as one of her key associates. Throughout the 2010s, Kusum's drug business expanded and she started acquiring property across Rohini and Outer Delhi to park her money, a police officer said. Her Sultanpuri home, a cluster of modest shabby three-floor buildings from the outside, was connected to form a 'mini-mansion' from the inside, the officer said. 'Suppliers would come near the buildings on two-wheelers to take their order. Juveniles working for her would come to the windows, put pouches of heroin and smack in a basket, and lower it using ropes. The supplier would take his order, put cash in the basket, which was then pulled back up,' the officer said. As suppliers went in and out of her now 'iconic' E Block den, a team of policemen and CCTVs across the block began to watch their every movement. After years of surveillance and based on specific inputs, police raided the establishment in March this year and arrested her son Amit, 26, allegedly a key part of Kusum's operation and her heir apparent. More than 500 packets of heroin, tramadol tablets, Rs 14 lakh in cash and a black Scorpio SUV were recovered. Kusum and her three daughters, police said, went on the run. On Saturday, police reported that approximately Rs 2 crore in cash had been transferred into the accounts of both Pooja and Deepa over the past 18 months. According to Kusum's dossier, Amit and Pooja were her most frequent visitors during her stints in judicial custody, the most recent being in March 2024. 'It's extremely difficult to keep her behind bars and collect evidence. She has an army of chartered accountants and lawyers working for her. Even during the raid this year, about 12 lawyers reached the building to try and halt it,' a senior police officer said.
Indian Express
19-07-2025
- Indian Express
Silent killer on the loose: The menace of Chinese manjha
It's a humid July afternoon. In Southeast Delhi's Sangam Vihar, a 14-year-old has just come back from school. The scrawny teenager quickly changes into brown shorts and a black T-shirt and heads out again. He has to buy a packet of toned milk from a grocery store in the Sangam Vihar market, a small cluster of shops across the road from the main Wazirabad market. But the milk is only part of the errand. The boy, his friends claim, is the contact in the area to get the infamous 'Chinese manjha (kite string)'. 'Kam se kam 200 ka loge? (Will you buy at least Rs 200 worth of manjha?)' — he's often heard asking prospective customers. Once assured the buyer is serious, the boy gestures for them to follow him inside the market. En route is a shabby one-room kite shop, with children queuing up outside. But he passes by without a glance. 'Yahan kuch nai milega. Abhi (police) raid ka season hai. (You won't find anything here. This is the season of raids),' he says, referring to a recent raid by the Delhi Police Crime Branch in Wazirabad on July 5. After passing through a narrow alley, the boy reaches a small medical shop. He steps up and murmurs into the ear of an 18-year-old youth sitting at the counter. 'Rs 220 ek reel manjhe ke liye. Ek dum dhaardaar hai, Bareilly se laya hai mere chacha ka ladka. Bolo toh mangwaunga (Rs 220 for one reel of manja. It's very sharp. My cousin got it from Bareilly. Say the word and I will bring it),' the boy at the counter says. Despite being banned in Delhi, the sale of Chinese manjha continues. The string, made of nylon, is coated with crushed pieces of glass, giving it razor-sharp edges that easily cut through other kite strings in the air — but it is capable of doing far worse on the ground. In recent years, it has been linked to multiple deaths and injuries, particularly among two-wheeler riders whose necks get caught in stray strings hanging across roads. This year, it has already led to the death of one person and injured another. On June 27, Yash Goswami (22) died after his throat was slit by a Chinese manjha on Rani Jhansi flyover in North Delhi. The Karawal Nagar resident was on his way home at the time. 'Goswami suffered a deep cut on his neck, causing him to collapse on the spot. He was rushed to the hospital by passersby, where he was declared dead on arrival,' a police officer had said. In another incident on July 2, the string did not take the life of Axis Bank employee Prakash but slashed his face while he was passing by the Shastri Park flyover on his bike, police had said. Chinese manjha, according to the police and shopkeepers, is primarily produced in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh. It is called 'Chinese' not because of its origin, but because it is synthetic, unlike traditional Indian Manjha or 'Sadda', which are made from natural cotton threads. In January 2017, the Delhi government moved a notification banning manjha made of nylon and plastic and ones made of cotton coated with glass or metal (popularly known as 'Bareilly ka manjha'). In 2017, the National Green Tribunal had ordered a total ban on manjha made of nylon or any synthetic material. Like every year, the Delhi Police has started its crackdown on the supply of Chinese manjha. With the kite-flying season approaching ahead of Independence Day, the Crime Branch has already seized over 1,200 rolls of the banned thread from three locations in the city. The first seizure was done at Central Delhi's Kamla Market on June 26. Running the illegal manjha operation here was Areeb Khan (22) a former textile store worker. 'He had 248 rolls of banned string and was caught near Kamla Market. Areeb used to work at a clothing store but moved to kite-string selling for more profit,' DCP (Crime) Sanjeev Kumar Yadav had said. The second operation happened in West Delhi's Uttam Nagar on June 27. 2. Raju Chaurasia (51) was arrested in the case. The third operation took place in Sangam Vihar, Wazirabad on July 5. The raid led to the arrest of Danish Khan (28) and the recovery of 56 rolls of manjha. He used to make kites but started selling manjha to earn more money, police had said. In all, 1,226 rolls of Chinese manjha have been found, and police registered three FIRs against the people involved. On Friday itself, brothers Samir (22) and Shakir (18) were arrested from a jhuggi cluster at Nand Nagri with 325 reels of the banned Chinese manjha. They allegedly told the police that they were stocking up for the Independence Day. Kamla Market in Daryaganj, in the Lal Kuan area, is known as the hub for kite shops. Sitting at his family's kite shop is a 13-year-old bespectacled boy, handling customers as the adults have stepped out. Behind him, kites of all shapes and colours are pinned to the wall. The news of Areeb's arrest has spread like wildfire, with shopkeepers now vehemently denying ever possessing the Chinese Manjha. 'Chinese manjha ab nahi milta yaha. Jo bechte the unko bhi pakad liya police ne (Chinese manjha is not available here, the police have caught those who sold them),' says the boy. 'Par uski takkar ka mil jaayega (But you can get something of the same quality at the main shop),' he adds. He goes down a damp lane and, after about 250 m, enters a house with a green curtain serving as its entrance. Inside is a room with high-ceiling, with kites all around. Sitting on the floor, on a ragged, torn maroon carpet, are two teenage boys and an elderly man clad in a white kurta pyjama — all sewing kites. The man owns the kite shop. The 13-year-old asks the man, who is holding a purple kite in his hand, for manjha. The man shouts, 'Indian reel le aa ek (Bring a reel of cotton manjha).' Hearing him, the other two boys, a couple of years older than their bespectacled peer, rush together inside a storeroom. They come out with a reel of thread. 'Cotton hai, par masala chadha hua hai. Wahi glass wala jo hota hai. (It's a cotton thread, but it's coated with glass),' says the man on being asked if the thread has the same sharpness as the 'Chinese one'. According to police officers, the ban applies both to the nylon thread and its deadly glass coating (Bareilly manjha). 'The nylon threads are sometimes replaced by cotton ones at these shops. But they have options. You can buy a sadda (plain cotton reel) or the glass-coated one (glass-coated cotton reel),' an officer said. 'Hard to make arrests' Though suppliers are often caught in raids, arrests are rare in cases where deaths occur from stray manjha hanging in public spaces. 'It's very difficult to nab someone in these cases. The thread gets cut once it tangles around someone on a road or in any public place. It's difficult to trace the owner of one piece of thread found on a random flyover,' a police officer says. No arrests have been made in the two cases from this year, police say. On August 19 in 2023, Sandeep (40) was taking his seven-year-old daughter on an early morning drive on his black motorcycle to Bhaira Enclave in West Delhi's Paschim Vihar. His daughter was sitting in front. He was about to take a turn when his daughter screamed. 'I quickly stopped and got her down — and saw the manjha wrapped around her neck. She was bleeding,' Sandeep had told police at that time. The girl died on her way to the hospital. No one has been arrested till now, a senior police officer says. In August 2019, Manav Sharma (28) had his throat slit by the manjha in Paschim Vihar of Outer Delhi. He was on the way home on a scooter with his sisters after celebrating Raksha Bandhan. No arrest was made in this case either, the officer adds. Monika (26), the younger sister of Manav, was sitting behind him on the scooter, when his throat was slit. 'The scooter has been parked for the last six years in front of our building. No one in our family touched it,' Monika says. The death of Manav, who was the sole breadwinner for a family of five – including his parents and his two sisters – devastated the family. 'We were returning after celebrating Raksha Bandhan. My cousins had come from Punjab. Manav was riding the scooter, and I and my sister were riding pillion. He suddenly stopped and we saw blood gushing from his throat,' Monika says. Monika is now the sole breadwinner of the family of three – her father had died in 2023. 'I work for a private firm… Since he (Manav) left us, I haven't been able to ride a two-wheeler. Every year, I hear about manjhas causing deaths. I don't know about the ban, but how come such a thing that can kill people this easily is still available in the market,' she asks. As Independence Day nears, raids on manjha godowns are expected to be stepped up, senior police officers said. 'Most suppliers get stock 48 hours before August 14, when the demand is at peak. They look to quickly sell and finish off the stock before they can be caught,' an officer added.
