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Alwar jailbreak gangster Papla Gurjar was a ‘noble’ man who went on a revenge trip

Friends and family of Vikram ‘Papla’ Gurjar, who was freed from a lock-up in Rajasthan’s Alwar last week, talk of a 2014 incident that changed his life forever.

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Mahendragarh/Gurugram: It has been a week since the Behror police station in Rajasthan’s Alwar district was attacked by 15 goons, who freed Haryana gang leader Vikram Gurjar after firing 50 rounds of gunshots.

Gurjar, commonly known by his nickname Papla, was nabbed for carrying Rs 31.90 lakh in cash on the Delhi-Jaipur highway, but succeeded in fooling the Rajasthan Police by identifying himself as Sahil. He had been absconding since 2017, when his accomplices, including his brother Mintu, freed him from a police van at a district court in his native Mahendragarh, Haryana.

Gurjar has had at least 21 cases lodged against him, ranging from murder to attempted murder to robbery, extortion, causing grievous hurt, as well as a rape case. A reward of Rs 1 lakh has been offered for his capture, but his muscle power can be gauged from the fact that until now, 50 police teams across Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Rajasthan have not been able to get anywhere near him. He has become almost a cult figure on social media, with multiple videos about him having cropped up on YouTube.

ThePrint visited his native village Khairoli in Mahendragarh and spoke to policemen across Haryana and Rajasthan to understand his criminal history and the making of this dreaded gangster.


Also read: Alwar cops ‘slept’ as gang with AK-47s blazing freed most-wanted boss from police station


A mother’s regret

Gurjar’s mother Urmila is in her early 50s, and is playing with her two-year-old granddaughter, the offspring of her jailed younger son Mintu, in a house that stands in the middle of millet fields. Father Manohar Lal drives a truck for a living, and is away for work.

As soon as one mentions Gurjar’s name, Urmila breaks down, and says she’s been dreaming of her son ever since the police came looking for him after the Behror jailbreak. “All I want to know is that he is doing fine and getting food,” she says.

Papla Gurjar's mother Urmila
Papla Gurjar’s mother Urmila at their family home in Khairoli village, Mahendragarh district, Haryana | Suraj Singh Bisht | ThePrint

The mother accepts her son’s misdeeds, saying she regrets sending Vikram to learn kushti (wrestling) under the tutelage of Shakti, who became his guru and friend, and whose murder set him on a violent path of ‘revenge’.

She hasn’t seen Gurjar since 2017, and complains that the police never let her give him home-cooked food.

“That’s all he would ask for — kadhi and milk. Lassi and banana shake were his favourites,” she says, adding that in his quest to become a pehelwan (wrestler), he only consumed milk, bananas, lassi and dry fruits, never touching alcohol, drugs or non-vegetarian food.

Gurjar completed his class XII from a government school in Khairoli but never went to college, getting busy in the akhada (mud wrestling pits). His friend Mahender told ThePrint: “He was like any of us, spent his days working out and listening to the songs from Sanjay Dutt’s Khalnayak… He loved Dutt and watched all his films.

Papla Gurjar's home
Papla Gurjar’s home gym in Khairoli village, Mahendragarh district, Haryana | Suraj Singh Bisht | ThePrint

“He was particularly fond of children and encouraged them to learn wrestling and self-defence measures at the local akhada,” added Mahender. 

Another friend, who requested anonymity, said Gurjar was decent at his studies and never failed. A neighbour, meanwhile, added no one in the village ever had any problem with him.

From friends to auto drivers to neighbours, everyone ThePrint spoke to insisted they had wanted their children to mingle with Gurjar because he was a “noble being”. They couldn’t imagine him killing an ant, let alone murdering a number of people.

Transition from Vikram to ‘Papla Gurjar’

Shakti was murdered in 2014, and from the police to the residents of Khairoli, everyone agrees that this changed Gurjar’s approach to life. Now, he had a single goal — to avenge Shakti’s death.

“Papla was very perturbed, but he initially tried to let go, since his sister’s marriage was a month away and he didn’t want anything untoward to come in the way,” says Bhupender of Nangal Sirohi, Gurjar’s childhood friend.

But this didn’t last long, as Shakti’s friends coaxed Gurjar to seek revenge by killing his murderers — a man called Chiku and his accomplices, who had a long-standing enmity with Shakti.

A police investigation concluded that Gurjar went on a killing spree, allegedly murdering Chiku’s accomplice Sandeep Fauji and the latter’s mother, grandfather and uncle.

On 8 September 2017, during the hearing of one of these cases at the Mahendragarh district court, he was freed from a police van in the parking lot. In the process, a sub-inspector was injured, and remains in a coma. The police nabbed some of the accomplices, including brother Mintu, who remains in jail, but Gurjar managed to flee and has been on the run ever since.

Gurjar belonged to the ‘Dr Kuldeep gang’. But while the doctor mended his ways, Gurjar and his friend Virender alias Juthar continued to commit more crimes with at least 20 other gang members across Haryana and along the Rajasthan-Haryana border.


Also read: With its own organised crime control law in place, Haryana now hopes to rein in gangsters


At least 21 criminal cases have been registered against Gurjar, including four murder cases — for allegedly killing Sandeep Fauji, his mother Bimla Devi, grandfather Shohram and maternal uncle Mahesh. Of these, he has been acquitted in the Mahesh murder case, but the other three are under trial and he has been declared a ‘proclaimed offender’ in them.

In all, he has been acquitted in 13 cases, including a 2006 rape case in Narnaul, while the only case he has been convicted in is a 2012 case of causing grievous hurt, for which he served a year’s sentence.

He is also a co-accused in several crimes allegedly committed by his gang members, but after speaking to several senior police officers in Haryana and Rajasthan, there wasn’t clarity on what is the exact number of cases he’s accused in.

Why police have failed to nab him 

Haryana’s Special Task Force DIG Sateesh Balan says there are several extortion cases against Gurjar in connection with illegal mining. He says the STF has been making all possible efforts to nab Gurjar, but suspects the local police are conniving to protect him.

“One cannot rule out that local cops are in connivance with the gangster, and at times that has also delayed the entire process. It is unfortunate,” Balan told ThePrint.

A senior Haryana police officer, who wishes to remain anonymous, explains this “connivance” as follows.

“Since many gangsters like Papla extort miners in Haryana, policemen who otherwise find it difficult to get hold of the illegal miners strike a deal with Papla and the likes. In exchange for enabling the arrest of these miners, the police let them evade arrest as a form of mutual settlement,” the officer says.

Another factor is political patronage, since Gurjar brings a strong vote-bank and muscle power to the table. Some policemen are also scared of being “knocked off” by him.


Also read: 2 cops removed, 4 suspended by embarrassed Rajasthan DGP after gang frees arrested leader


 

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