Taekwondo champion-turned gangster held in Delhi
New Delhi: A 41-year-old Taekwondo star-turned-gangster was arrested from southeast Delhi's Badarpur area for allegedly hatching a conspiracy to harm a police officer, officials said on Saturday.
They said the accused Ajay Gurjar alias Bhai ji, a resident of Palwal district in Haryana, wanted to avenge the death of one Ankit Gurjar in prison and hence targeted the deputy superintendent of Tihar jail.
In August 2021, the recording of a phone call between two persons, one of whom the police earlier identified as Satender alias Satte, went viral.
In the audio, Satte was heard asking the other person to arrange an AK-47 rifle to kill a rival gang member. They also spoke about harming the Tihar jail DSP.
Ankit was found dead with multiple injuries on his body on August 4, 2021, in Central Jail Number 3, Tihar. His family members had alleged that he was killed in connivance of jail staff.
After Satender's arrest on August 17, police said they identified the person on the other side of the phone call as Ajay Gurjar.
During investigation, the police learnt about Ajay's scheduled visit to the bus stand at Badarpur on Thursday evening and was nabbed, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Jasmeet Singh said.
Ajay is involved in more than 24 criminal cases, including murder, attempt to murder, extortion and assault in Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Mumbai, police said.
Ajay's cousin JP Gurjar, who had underworld connections, had introduced him to Hafij Baloch, a dreaded gangster in Mumbai.
Later, he shifted to Mumbai and stayed at Baloch's house.
Ajay got deeply influenced by the gangster's luxurious lifestyle and hence, he soon developed contacts with three other underworld fugitives -- Iqbal Ibrahim Kaskar (brother of Dawood Ibrahim), Subhash Thakur and Arif Jaan (brother-in-law of Chhota Shakil) -- in Mumbai, the DCP said.
Ajay had in 2012 also opened fire on Karan Singh Dalal and Shiv Charan Lal Sharma, both former ministers of Haryana and one Chandi Ram Gupta, a councilor in Haryana's Palwal region, for extortion, police said.
He was arrested in 2018 and came out on bail around 10 months ago, they said.
Ajay is an international Taekwondo black belt holder and has eight gold medals at the national level to his name.
He had also won silver medal in the 2003 international Taekwondo championship in Bhutan.
Two years later, he had finished at fifth position in another international Taekwondo event in Mumbai, police said.
A semi-automatic pistol with five live cartridges was recovered from him, police added.
