Convicted gangster Lagarpuria faces probe in over two dozen cases

New Delhi, Dec 12 (PTI) Gangster Vikas Gulia alias Vikas Lagarpuria, who was convicted under MCOCA on Tuesday, was named in over two dozen cases, including a multi-crore cash heist in Gurugram in August 2021.

Lagarpuria was convicted under MCOCA for running an organised crime syndicate.

A dropout of Delhi University's Ram Lal Anand College, where he was enrolled in History Hons, he entered the crime scene somewhere in 2009, when he came in contact with gangster Dheerpal at an akhara in Najafgarh.

In February 2012, he was arrested for the first time in a murder case registered at Chhawla, but was released on bail the following year.

What followed was a rapid expansion of his criminal footprint.

By 2015, over 16 cases had been registered against him in southwest Delhi and adjoining Haryana districts.

The Delhi Police invoked MCOCA against him the same year, acknowledging the structured nature of his syndicate, which included shooters, extortion collectors and logistics handlers operating in areas like Chhawla, Najafgarh, Jaffarpur, Baba Haridas Nagar and Dwarka, according to the Special Task Force of Haryana's dossier.

Haryana STF Chief B Satheesh Balan said Lagarpuria faces more than two dozen criminal cases -- 10 in Haryana and 17 in Delhi -- under charges that include murder, criminal conspiracy, extortion, robbery, cheating, criminal intimidation, disappearance of evidence and arms offences.

His name also features in cases linked with the Manoj Morkheri-Lagarpuria gang, in which his associate Dheerpal played a key role.

The 35-year-old Lagarpuria carried a reward of Rs 2.5 lakh on his arrest.

Although the theft was initially reported at Rs 50 lakh, the amount recovered by investigators rose to Rs 5.78 crore, and the suspected trail was believed to exceed Rs 20 crore.

Investigations revealed that Lagarpuria had orchestrated the robbery from Dubai, where he had fled using a fake passport, after a city-based doctor passed on information about the hidden cash.

The heist eventually resulted in around 20 arrests, including that of an IPS officer who was accused of taking bribes to help cover up the crime and was subsequently suspended.

In December 2022, he was arrested at the New Delhi airport after being deported from Dubai, almost a year after he fled from here on a fake passport.

The conviction came in a case registered at Najafgarh police station in 2015, where the court held him and his close associate Dheerpal alias Kana guilty of engaging in organised criminal activity. PTI SSJ BM SLB DV APL APL