Who is gangster Himanshu Bhau: Bishnoi rival was a ‘studious child’ who found crime in his teens

Police say Bhau’s gang works through virtual numbers and social media. Its members call businessmen, liquor contractors and property dealers, demand protection money, and fire shots at those who refuse.

Himanshu Bhau, 24, was detained in the US Friday. | Photo by special arrangement

Chandigarh: For more than four years, police in Delhi and Haryana chased a man they could not find. On Friday, a tip about a hideout in Las Vegas brought the chase to a close.

Himanshu alias Bhau, a native of Ritoli village in Rohtak and one of north India’s most wanted gangsters, has been detained in the United States. Fellow gangster Neeraj Kaushik, better known as Neeraj Faridpur, was also picked up with Himanshu. 

An officer in the Haryana Police, requesting anonymity, told ThePrint that teams of Delhi and Haryana Police had been tracking Himanshu Bhau in the US. Technical surveillance and informers led them to a hideout in Las Vegas, and the location was shared with US agencies, the officer said.

From Ritoli to Interpol notice

Himanshu Bhau is 24 now. When ThePrint visited Ritoli last year for a ground report on the gangs of Rohtak, villagers said Himanshu had been studious as a child and liked kabaddi. 

He and Ankit Baba, another local gangster, were close friends till their mid-teens but went on to become bitter rivals. The friendship is said to have ended in 2019 over a car. In 2019, a friend of Ankit’s named Hansraj alias Hanse acquired a bus to run along a rural route. He enlisted Himanshu to “protect” it by riding alongside. But Himanshu wasn’t interested in a bike. He wanted a car. So Hanse took out a loan in Ankit’s family’s name and bought one. When Ankit’s family asked for the car back, Himanshu refused. The friendship soured quickly.

The two gangs have since been playing a blood game against each other.

Soon after the loan affair, Himanshu fired a gun at Ankit’s brother Sunny at Ritoli stadium. No one was hurt, but Himanshu, then 17, was sent to a juvenile home in Hisar. In October 2020, he escaped along with several others after attacking the staff.

Police say he then got close to jailed Delhi gangster Neeraj Bawana, began threatening traders for money, and in time built his own gang.

The feud with Ankit turned deadly in March 2022 when Ankit’s gang allegedly shot dead Himanshu’s cousin Rohit alias Bajrang. Five days later, Himanshu’s men allegedly killed Hansraj at Ritoli bus stand.

Police say Himanshu fled India soon after on a forged passport. He went to Portugal first, and later to the US. Interpol issued a Red Corner Notice against him in 2023.

He carried rewards of Rs 2.5 lakh from Haryana Police and Rs 1 lakh from Delhi Police.

The cases and the gang

According to police sources, Himanshu Bhau has nearly 30 criminal cases against him in Haryana alone, including murder, attempt to murder, extortion, criminal intimidation and forgery.

In Delhi, his gang has been linked to the 2024 Burger King shooting in Delhi’s Rajouri Garden, in which a 26-year-old man was killed, and to the firing at a car showroom in Naraina the same year.

In 2025, the gang claimed responsibility for firing shots outside the Gurugram home of YouTuber Elvish Yadav. Reports also said the gang took responsibility for the shooting of a gym trainer in Delhi on 14 September this year.

Police say the gang works through virtual numbers and social media. Its members call businessmen, liquor contractors and property dealers, demand protection money, and fire shots at those who refuse. Himanshu is close to the Bambiha camp and Bawana. He is seen as an enemy of the Lawrence Bishnoi and Goldy Brar gangs.

The music label link

One name from Himanshu’s circle came up in the death of IPS officer Y. Puran Kumar in October 2025. Rao Inderjeet Yadav, owner of the Haryanvi music label Gems Tunes, is accused in the December 2024 murder of Rohtak financier Manjeet Dighal, which the Himanshu Bhau group claimed. He is reported to have fled India afterwards, and the Enforcement Directorate opened a money-laundering probe against him.

A week after Kumar’s death on 7 October, Rohtak Assistant Sub-Inspector Sandeep Lather died by suicide. In his final video and note, Lather alleged that Kumar had struck a Rs 50 crore deal to clear Inderjeet’s name in a murder case. Inderjeet was then said to be in the US and linked to the Bhau gang. These are Lather’s allegations. Investigators had not verified the video when the reports appeared.

Back in Ritoli

When ThePrint visited Ritoli in June 2025, days after farmer Anil Kumar—Ankit Baba’s uncle—was shot dead in a field, kirana shops were shut by 10 am and police checked every vehicle entering the village. Of Ritoli’s roughly 5,000 residents, about 500 were named in cases ranging from land grabs to murder, according to local police.

Himanshu’s family home is a plain house located a few minutes from Ankit’.s That day, a boy of about 10 was kicking a football outside in the deserted lane. An elderly man whom ThePrint met to ask about Himanshu and his rivalry with Ankit Baba warned: “Don’t ask, go!”

Indian agencies now await official word from US authorities on his extradition and the proceedings that follow. 

(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)