Lawyer jailed for land grabbing in Kanpur booked under Gangsters Act

Kanpur, Sep 9 (PTI) A jailed lawyer accused of running a 20-member gang engaged in land grab in the city has been booked under the Gangsters Act, police on Tuesday said.

Dheeraj Upadhyay alias Deenu allegedly has lawyers in his gang who act as a white collar mafia laying claims on disputed properties.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Shravan Kumar Singh told reporters that Upadhyay, a resident of Nawabganj, currently lodged in jail, led the gang that has now been registered as Inter Range gang (IR Gang-09).

The Deenu gang allegedly operated under the guise of advocacy, dividing the city into pockets, he said.

It is the third major gang in the city, after slain Vikas Dubey's 30-member gang, and former press club president Avneesh Dixit's 26-member listed gang, the DCP said.

Several key members of the Deenu gang have allegedly amassed crores in a short span, said another police officer.

Ram Khilawan, Anoop Shukla, Aridaman Singh, Deepak Jadaun, Gopal Singh, Manu Upadhyay, Narayan Bhadauria, Sanjay Upadhyay, Satyendra Trivedi, and Vikas Thakur, all members of the gang, are behind the bars.

Other members Vimla Devi, Shubham Nishad, Ajay Sharma, Upendra Bhadauria, Uday Narayan Sharma, Alok Mishra, Dharmendra Yadav alias Dharmu, and Shrot Gupta, are out on bail.

Dheeraj Dubey alias Twinkle Pandit and Neeraj Dubey alias Sonu Pandit, two key members of the gang, are absconding. PTI COR KIS VN VN