New Delhi: The probe into the “targeted killing” of Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena chief Sukhdev Singh Gogamedi has many moving parts, rooted in a two-decade-old murder case in which he was named as one of the accused.
Gogamedi’s murder was allegedly planned by Rohit Godara and aide Virender Chahan, both wanted criminals. According to sources in Rajasthan Police, though Godara and Chahan may have hatched the plot in October, they had set their sights on Gogamedi since after the murder of gangster Raju Thet last year.
Thet, who for decades terrorised the region comprising districts on the Rajasthan-Haryana border, was killed last December — a murder for which Godara claimed responsibility in a purported Facebook post. Police sources said Godara, whose real name is Rawat Das Swami, works closely with the Lawrence Bishnoi-Goldy Brar gang.
As for Gogamedi, the president of the Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena was shot at his residence in Jaipur’s Shyam Nagar area Tuesday by two men, as seen on CCTV footage.
As ThePrint reported earlier, investigators suspect that Godara offered the two shooters, Nitin ‘fauji’ and Rohit Rathore, an advance of Rs 50,000, guns to get the job done and a commitment to help them flee abroad if they were to carry out the hit successfully.
Both Nitin and Rohit were arrested Saturday night from a hotel in Chandigarh’s Sector 22 by a joint team of the Delhi Police Crime Branch and Rajasthan Police.
While police are yet to comment on the exact motive of the shooters, it is evident that rivalries among gangs active in the region may turn out to be a key piece of the puzzle, along with local caste politics and disputes over liquor tenders.
“The dispute between Gogamedi and this (Bishnoi-Brar) gang has been going on for decades. It was initially about caste dominance, a tussle between Jats and Rajputs, but that factor has now faded away,” a source in the Rajasthan Police told ThePrint.
2002 murder & what followed
Sukhdev Singh Gogamedi, who police records show was himself a history-sheeter with at least 30 criminal cases against him, including that of murder, attempt to murder and extortion, had shot to limelight in 2017 when he led protests against the film Padmaavat.
According to police sources, Gogamedi had been a thorn in the side of Sampat Nehra — another gangster and known associate of Bishnoi — since 2002, much before gangs now active in the region even took shape. The trigger for this rivalry, it is believed, was the murder of one Sumer Phagedia, a Nehra aide who was killed in Rajasthan’s Churu in 2002.
Gogamedi was named as an accused in Phagedia’s murder, sources in the Rajasthan police told ThePrint, adding that Nehra and Phagedia knew each other well. It is also learnt that in the years following Phagedia’s murder, Gogamedi locked horns with Nehra, and by extension Bishnoi, many times.
Both Nehra and Bishnoi had known each other since their days at Panjab University.
Godara, on the other hand, entered the picture only a few years ago. With Bishnoi behind bars and most of his aides either dead or irrelevant, Godara took advantage of the power vacuum to make a name for himself in the region’s criminal landscape.
“Godara started flexing his hold in this region more after Sidhu Moose Wala’s murder in May last year,” said a second police officer from Rajasthan.
As ThePrint reported earlier, parts of Rajasthan are fertile ground for organised crime with several gangs active in these areas at any given point in time. These gangs regularly recruit young blood like Nitin and Rohit, who allegedly sprayed Gogamedi with bullets, succumbing to the temptation of a better life in the US or Canada.
But it was not just about the money. Police sources suggest that Rohit Rathore had a personal grudge against Gogamedi. ThePrint had reported earlier that this grudge may have stemmed from Gogamedi’s intervention in a 2017 POCSO case against Rohit.
“So far during questioning, Rathore said he had a personal grudge against Gogamedi because he (Gogamedi) interfered in his POCSO case and did not let a settlement take place. Rathore claimed the minor was his friend and blamed Gogamedi for landing him behind bars. That woman is now his (Rohit’s) friend and is still in touch with him,” said the first police officer from Rajasthan quoted earlier.
It was during his time in jail that Rohit is believed to have met Virender Chahan, in 2018. Chahan was the person who police suspect introduced him to Godara.
Spiral of violence
For gangs, the liquor trade is easy money and a route to establishing local dominance. They extort vendors for ‘protection money’ or demand large sums in exchange for help with securing government tenders for liquor vends.
Police sources said Raju Thet, who was killed in December 2022 as mentioned earlier, had secured one such tender for a liquor vend along with one Balbir Banuda, in Jeenmata in Sikar district sometime around 2004.
Banuda’s brother-in-law Vijaypal was given the charge of the liquor business, but he soon had a fallout with Thet over financial issues. Thet then allegedly killed Vijaypal, thereby ending his partnership with Banuda.
To avenge Vijaypal’s murder, Banuda then teamed up with one Anand Pal, added sources. What followed was the murder of Thet’s close aide Gopal Phogat, in 2006. Thet and Phogat, it is learnt, had been friends since 1998, when they entered the liquor business together and formed the “Shekhawati gang”.
In 2014, Thet’s men in Bikaner jail allegedly attacked Anand Pal and Banuda. Pal survived but was killed in an encounter in 2017.
By then, the Bishnoi-Brar gang had wiped out most rivals and established their dominance in the region.
After Thet fell to bullets last year, while out on parole, Godara in a purported Facebook post claimed responsibility for the killing. “I take responsibility for the murder, the revenge is complete…after Anandpal’s encounter, members of the gang joined the Lawrence Bishnoi gang. Both gangs were involved in the incident,” he reportedly wrote.
Asked to comment on the link between Godara and Anandpal, sources in Rajasthan Police confirmed that the two had been known to work together.
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