New Delhi: Gangster Joginder Geong, deported from the Philippines Sunday, was the key executioner for the designated terrorist Arshdeep Singh alias Arsh Dalla and jailed gangsters Kaushal Choudhary and Amit Dagar, according to Haryana and Delhi Police. He is also the younger brother of slain gangster Surender Geong, who allegedly was behind an organised extortion racket in Haryana and NCR, the police said.
Joginder, the police added, fled India in 2018 after killing one person in Panipat on suspicion that the person provided police with information that led to the encounter of his brother, Surender, in 2017. He has at least 25 cases against his name and faces life imprisonment in multiple of them.
On Sunday, Geong was brought to Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport and taken into custody by a joint team of the Delhi Police Special Cell and Haryana Special Task Force.
According to the police, Joginder adopted the identity of Kanta Gupta, a Nepalese citizen, to flee India and settle in the Philippines. However, the immigration bureau of the Philippines arrested him in July last year at the request of Indian security agencies.
The Central Bureau of Investigation had got a Red Corner Notice opened against Joginder’s name at the request of the Haryana Police in October last year.
“CBI, on the request of Haryana Police, had got a Red Notice issued against the subject from INTERPOL on 25.10.2024 and was circulated to all the law enforcement agencies globally to track the wanted criminal. On the strength of Red Notice, subject Joginder Gyong was deported from the Philippines via Bangkok to Delhi,” an agency spokesperson said.
“The Red Notice subject Joginder Gyong, on arrival at IGI airport New Delhi from Bangkok, was detained. Since the subject was also wanted by Delhi Police, he was handed over to Special Cell, Southern Range, Delhi Police, today, i.e., 02.02.2025, for further action,” he added.
Addressing a press conference later, Additional Commissioner of Police Pramod Singh Kushwaha said Joginder’s locations were tracked by a special cell in the Philippines and shared with the Haryana Police, leading to his arrest in that country.
“The special cell in the Philippines tracked Joginder’s location, movements and activities and shared the detailed intelligence with Haryana Police, which provided actionable inputs and, thereafter, the joint request was placed before central agencies for getting Joginder Geong detained and deported back to India from his hiding place in Bacolod City, Philippines, where he had assumed a fake ID,” Kushwaha said.
‘2IC to his brother, point man of all criminal syndicates’
Coming from a well-off family from the Geong village in Haryana’s Kaithal district, Joginder’s journey in the crime world began way back in 2001 when Karnal district police booked him on the charge of theft.
Three years later, his brother Surender was deported from South Africa by Haryana Police and lodged at Bhondsi jail for a long period of time. During the same time, officers said, Kushal Choudhary and Amit Dagar—now known as dreaded gangsters—were lodged in the same jail for petty extortion.
“It was Surender, who instructed Kushal and Amit to carry out organised extortion and suggested profiles of people who should be their target. It was Surender who brought today’s menace of large-scale extortion and targeted killings to Haryana,” a Haryana Police officer told ThePrint, requesting anonymity.
While Surender was serving a life term in jail, Jonginder was the second-in-command (2IC) in operations planned by his brother and dealt with the logistics of the extortion racket and the funding of associates.
“He was his brother’s 2IC in the world of crime and provided all possible support while being out of the jail,” the official quoted above further said.
Additional CP Kushwaha further said that Joginder recalibrated his gang after settling down in the Philippines and quickly came on board with Arsh Dalla, Lucky Patial, the current leader of Bambiha gang and, once again, joined hands with Kaushal Choudhary to become a “key planner and organiser” for crucial tasks, such as managing manpower, harbouring fugitives, moving narcotics and weapons, functioning as a logistical head to facilitate the activities of these criminal networks.
Kushwaha further added that it was the very syndicate that had carried out high-profile killings of Vicky Midhukhera, Gurlal Brar and noted Kabaddi player Sandeep Nangal in Punjab over the last few years.
“Jonginder was running a sleeper cell of 50-60 low-profile operatives who were given some Rs 20,000-25,000 in their accounts without full details of their target. All targeted killings carried out in Punjab in the recent few years were directly or indirectly financed and managed by Joginder Geong from Philippines,” a Haryana STF officer told ThePrint.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)