Delhi court shootout: Grimy tale of one-time best pals turning deadly rivals

Jitendra alias Gogi, who was shot dead by two men dressed as lawyers inside Rohini court, Delhi, on Friday, was a dreaded gangster wanted in a number of cases and having a long-standing rivalry with another gangster named Tillu Tajpuriya alias Sunil Mann.

The irony is that once, Gogi and Tillu were the closest friends before they fell out with each other over student politics in college.

Friends turn foes

According to police, Gogi resided in Alipore area near the Delhi-Haryana border. He started dealing in property after he dropped out of school and indulged in crimes after his father’s demise in 2010.

Being good in sports, he managed to get admission in a college under Delhi University under sports quota as he excelled in volleyball and athletics. He has also participated in various competitions representing his school. According to a report in Indian Express, Gogi had an accident after which he could not participate in any sports.

His rivalry with Tillu aka Sunil Mann, his closest friend since childhood till then, started in his college days in 2010. Gogi and Tillu started indulging in student politics. Although they did not contest elections directly, they provided muscle power, a HT report said. In the later years, the rivalry between them grew.

Around this time, there were other gangs operating in the region, and the ones helmed by rivals Neetu Dabodia and Neeraj Bawana, dominated for some time. But Dabodia was killed in a police encounter in 2013 and Bawana was arrested in 2015.

Rivalry turns deadly

According to the police, this vacuum led to the rise of Gogi and Tillu as top gangsters. The rivalry between two intensified as the two groups indulged in extortion, robbery, car-jacking, murders and other crimes.

Reports claim that Gogi has also murdered folk singer Harshita Dahiya and Aam Aadmi Party leader Virendra Mann. Gogi had also killed a teacher named Deepak, an associate of Tillu, for pursuing Gogi’s cousin sister.

Also read: Gogi, 2 rivals killed in Delhi court shootout, security lapse decried

As per the FIR filed under MCOCA in 2018, he had fired at a man named Praveen in September 2010,” and then killed two others named Sandeep and Ravinder. Thereafter, he formed a gang to earn money. Reports claimed that he invested all his earnings in buying weapons and SUVs.

The enmity became deadly when they started killing each other’s associates, after which they started targeting each other. Gogi and his gang had killed Tillu’s associates. Gogi tried to kill Tillu.

Court murder

Gogi was caught by police last year and was jailed in Tihar. Around six months before that, the police had arrested 16 of his associates.

Tillu had been arrested in 2015 but was operating the gang from the prison cell. The two were set to appear in the same courtroom in a case against both. In fact, Gogi had planned to kill Tillu in the court. But Tilllu got the better of him, and finished the rivalry by hiring two associates who dressed up as lawyers and shot Gogi on September 24 inside a courtroom.