As part of its crackdown on gangsters and their associates, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Haryana on Monday raided the Yamunanagar residence of gangster Virender Partap alias Kala Rana who had fled to Thailand in 2017-18 using a forged passport and was extradited to India in March this year, officials said.
Yamunanagar SP Mohit Handa told The Indian Express: “The raid has been underway since early Monday morning. Currently, the gangster is under judicial custody and his premises have been raided. The Haryana police are extending full support to the NIA.”
The police said Rana is allegedly a key member of the syndicate run by gangsters Lawrence Bishnoi and Kala Jathedi and earlier ran illegal activities in India from Thailand.
According to officers, Rana was located in Thailand after key inputs were shared by the Special Task Force (STF) of the Haryana Police with central security agencies. The police said Rana is involved in at least 30 cases of murder, attempt to murder, extortion and criminal intimidation across Haryana, and had also planned the escape of Kuldeep alias Fajja from police custody in GTB Hospital last year.
Kala Rana had been carrying a reward of Rs 1,00,000 for his arrest in connection with a case registered in Haryana. In jail, he became close friends with Sampat Nehra, a close associate of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi. In 2017, he along with Nehra and others opened fire on a person named Rajender alias Raja, the brother of former MLA Dilbag Singh, and a court later declared Rana a proclaimed offender in the case. Meanwhile, Rana left India using a fake passport.
“Our unit had been working on his arrest for a long time, and we had provided the necessary inputs to agencies that facilitated his arrest in Thailand. He is in the custody of the Delhi Police. We will take him on production remand and question him regarding several cases registered in Haryana,” Satheesh Balan, IG, Special Task Force, Haryana Police, had said earlier.
