Nation / Sat, 29 Jun 2024 The Indian Express

Bullets, burgers and Bhau: How a 21-year-old on the run is giving police sleepless nights

AdvertisementOver 60 km from Rajouri Garden, surrounded by wheat fields, lies Ritauli, Himanshu’s home town in Rohtak district. Ratauli village in Rohtak Residence of gangster Himanshu Bhau, (Express Photo by Gajendra Yadav.) Ratauli village in Rohtak Residence of gangster Himanshu Bhau, (Express Photo by Gajendra Yadav.) Ratauli village in Rohtak Residence of gangster Himanshu Bhau, (Express Photo by Gajendra Yadav.) “After his escape from the juvenile home, he had decided to work with a jailed gangster in Delhi.

Around 6 pm on October 12, 2020, the Assistant Superintendent of a juvenile correctional facility in Haryana’s Hisar heard “noises” from the facility. He walked in to find the place in disarray — telephone wires had been cut, three on-duty wardens had been assaulted and a warden’s mobile phone snatched. Then came the shocker: 20 of the inmates had fled. While 18 of them were later traced, two, Himanshu, 17, and his relative, remained missing.

Nearly four years later, at merely 21, Himanshu remains a headache for police forces in Delhi and Haryana. Since fleeing the juvenile home, he has accumulated over 20 cases, at least 16 of these of murder and attempt to murder, has an Interpol red notice in his name and is a gang leader on the radar of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) who currently runs his network virtually from Portugal.

By August 2022, 12 cases, including that of murder, had been registered against Himanshu at the Shivaji Colony police station, around 14 km from the village. Officers from the police station say that in 2022, they set up a camp in Ritauli to catch him in connection with a murder case. By August 2022, 12 cases, including that of murder, had been registered against Himanshu at the Shivaji Colony police station, around 14 km from the village. Officers from the police station say that in 2022, they set up a camp in Ritauli to catch him in connection with a murder case.

And now, bullets fired late evening on June 18 inside a burger franchise in Delhi’s Rajouri Garden — that left a man dead — have padded the police dossier against him in Jhajjar, Rohtak and Delhi. The gangster hit headlines after the June 18 shooting in Rajouri Garden. In an Instagram post uploaded a few hours after the shoot-out, he claimed the murder was revenge for the victim’s “role” in the assassination of one of his associates.

Over 60 km from Rajouri Garden, surrounded by wheat fields, lies Ritauli, Himanshu’s home town in Rohtak district. The lane to his two-storey orange house looked desolate, with the main gate sporting a lock. “His mother had gone to his sister’s house,” a neighbour says.

Ratauli village in Rohtak Residence of gangster Himanshu Bhau, (Express Photo by Gajendra Yadav.) Ratauli village in Rohtak Residence of gangster Himanshu Bhau, (Express Photo by Gajendra Yadav.)

For a gangly youngster with a stubble who has allegedly not been seen in his village in almost two years, the name “Bhau”, Himanshu’s gang name, invokes visible fear. Most conversations with villagers end with a plea — “if we say something, he will shoot us dead in 10 minutes” — and a shuttering of doors.

A police camp is set up

By August 2022, 12 cases, including that of murder, had been registered against Himanshu at the Shivaji Colony police station, around 14 km from the village. Officers from the police station say that in 2022, they set up a camp in Ritauli to catch him in connection with a murder case. “We set up barricades and posted officers there. We even checked vehicles and raided houses, but he was nowhere to be found,” says the officer, adding that the camp was dismantled a year later.

Handing over a packet of milk to a customer, Raj Kumar, 50, who runs a general store near the government school where Himanshu studied, says, “I watched him grow up. He went to school daily and was a good child, but children follow by example. If a family has pehelwans (wrestlers), the children grow up to be pehelwans. His paternal uncle already had a foothold in the world of crime and Himanshu took to that life quite early on.”

Ratauli village in Rohtak Residence of gangster Himanshu Bhau, (Express Photo by Gajendra Yadav.) Ratauli village in Rohtak Residence of gangster Himanshu Bhau, (Express Photo by Gajendra Yadav.)

A police officer says, “His paternal uncle Shoki (who was lodged in Yamunanagar jail on charges of murder, attempted murder, loot and ransom) would visit him in the village on parole. Shoki was a huge influence on his nephew,” the officer said.

Before Himanshu chose crime, at the age of 14, he showed promise as a kabaddi player. A resident who runs a cattle feed shop in the village says, “I was among the four coaches who trained school children, including Himanshu, in kabaddi. He even participated in competitions across Rohtak. That was before he started hanging out with criminals.”

April 2018 marked Himanshu’s first brush with crime. Months after he turned 15, an FIR was registered against him for rioting. According to the FIR, the fight started over liquor trade in the village. “He assaulted a bus driver,” an officer said.

In 2020, all of 17, he was sent to a juvenile correctional facility in Hisar in connection with an attempted murder case. Over a month later, he staged a breakout with 20 others. While 18 of those who escaped were caught, Himanshu and Sahil have remained untraceable since then, the police said.

He, however, allegedly played his part in a string of violent incidents in his village. In 2020, his family sold a car to Ritauli resident Sunny, who failed to pay up in full. This, an officer said, led to a fight that ended with Himanshu being accused of attempted murder.

Himanshu’s house in Ratauli village. Himanshu’s house in Ratauli village.

Three years later, in August 2023, one of Sunny’s associates was murdered in Jhajjar. Though Himanshu was absconding, he and his mother, among others, were named as accused in that case. In 2022, rivalry over liquor trade between Himanshu’s family and another in the village led to a shoot-out and two murders. Himanshu is also accused of killing a bus driver from the rival group in the village.

Despite multiple efforts by the police, Himanshu managed to stay a step ahead of them. Before a lookout circular was issued in his name, he obtained a passport from the Bareilly office using forged papers in August 2022 and fled the country. The police says Himanshu flew to the United Arab Emirates, from where he took the “donkey route” to Europe. He was followed by his relative Sahil, 22.

The police believe Himanshu is currently running his syndicate, which operates in Delhi, Haryana, and Punjab, from Portugal with Sahil’s help. In August 2023, the Interpol issued a red notice in Himanshu’s name.

Currently on the Delhi Police’s most-wanted gangster list, he popped up on their radar only around 2023 as a known associate of the Neeraj Bawana-Naveen Bali gang. Sources said Himanshu came in contact with the Delhi-based gangsters, who were in jail then, in 2020.

“After his escape from the juvenile home, he had decided to work with a jailed gangster in Delhi. An associate helped Himanshu contact Naveen Bali, who was in Tihar jail then. Since Neeraj Bawana was in solitary confinement, Bali did not consult him about Himanshu and assigned him a task to prove his loyalty,” the source says.

To prove his loyalty, Himanshu was asked to kill three members from a rival gang run by Ashok Pradhan. “With many major criminals in Delhi in jail at that time, gangsters from Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan were trying to make inroads into the Capital. To maintain his gang’s stranglehold on the Capital, Bali had no option but to support Himanshu. In fact, he even asked his associates to help him out. Himanshu allegedly killed the three targets with the help of Bali’s associates. Bali was moved to solitary confinement after that,” the official said.

During his interrogation, Bawana told police that he was unaware of his gang’s association with Himanshu since he was in solitary confinement. He reportedly told them that he was unhappy with Himanshu’s working style. In a recent social media post, Himanshu mentioned his name before Bawana and Bali’s, something that did not go unnoticed by the gangster.

Bali told the investigators that Himanshu later “made his own group after coming in contact with one Sahil and Yogesh Kadian alias Bobby”. The official added that Himanshu, however, continues to get support from the Bawana-Bali gang.

Association with designated terrorist, gangs abroad

According to the police, there is a bounty on Himanshu — Rs 1 lakh in Delhi and Rs 1.5 lakh in Haryana. “Since the last three-four years, the NIA has been working to dismantle the nexus of gangsters and terrorists (abroad). They are currently working to get Himanshu and two of his allies abroad extradited,” an official said.

The NIA has been tracking Himanshu due to his association with designated terrorist Arshdeep Dalla, Bambiha gang and other syndicates abroad.

In May this year, Himanshu was accused of being involved in a firing at a West Delhi car showroom, which was followed by an extortion call seeking Rs 5 crore from the owner. At present, of Himanshu’s 31 known associates, two have look-out and red notices against them, two are on the run, six are out on bail and the rest are in jail.

Back in Ritauli, locals say they are paying for Himanshu’s sins. “Our village has become so infamous that even employed bachelors here don’t get brides easily,” says a resident.