THE BOXER WHO MADE AN ASS OF HIMSELF

GANGSTER DEEPAK BOXER’S ARREST IN MEXICO RENEWS FOCUS ON THE DONKEY ROUTE’ THAT THOUSANDS OF ILLEGAL INDIAN MIGRANTS TAKE IN THE HOPE FOR A BETTER LIFE IN THE WEST

- Pradip R. Sagar

Deepak ‘Boxer’ Pahal had been on the run since January across three continents, when the special cell of the Delhi Police finally arrested him on April 3 from Cancun, Mexico, just as he was about to launch into the last leg of his journey towards his final destination—the United States. It was the Delhi Police’s first-ever overseas operation of its kind, conducted with the help of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Interpol and the police in Mexico.

It all started in August 2022, when Special Commissioner Hargobinder Singh Dhaliwal asked his team to go after the big gangsters active in the National Capital Region. A list of the top 10 gangsters was drawn up, and Deepak Boxer figured right on top. A former junior national boxing champion—hence the sobriquet—the 27-year-old was wanted in multiple cases of murder and extortion. A native of Sonepat in Haryana, he had first shot into the limelight when he freed gang leader Jitendra Mann alias Gogi from police custody in 2016. After Gogi was killed in the Rohini courts complex in September 2021, Deepak took over as the head of the Gogi gang. His biggest crime was the murder of builder Amit Gupta in August 2022 in Delhi’s Burari area. He was also said to be associated with Lawrence Bishnoi and the Canada-based Goldy Brar, the gangsters suspected to have conspired to kill singer Sidhu Moosewala in May 2022.

Once they identified him as the NCR’s top gangster, the Delhi Police Special Cell launched a manhunt for Deepak, following his spoor across eight states—Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Goa and Gujarat. One by one, the police caught most of his associates. However, with the noose tightening around him, Deepak managed to get a fake passport in January in the name of Ravi Antil.