Delhi's wanted criminal Sonu Dariyapur fires at police, nabbed after gun fight

New Delhi: One of the most wanted criminals of Delhi Sonu Dariyapur, who carried a reward of Rs 5 lakh on his head, was arrested from Narela on Thursday following a brief exchange of fire, the police said.

38-year-old Satyawan alias Sonu Dariyapur was involved in more than 10 cases of murder, extortion and abduction in Delhi and Haryana.

He also faced cases under the Arms Act.

Delhi Police had announced a reward of Rs 5 lakh on information leading to his arrest. Haryana Police too announced a reward of Rs 50,000.

He was arrested this morning when he was returning to Delhi from Himachal Pradesh, where he had been hiding, police said.

In a shootout on April 30, gangster Monu Dariyapur, his personal security officers -- Delhi Police ASI Vijay Kumar and constable Kuldeep, and two others -- Arun Shastri and Yogesh, were attacked in outer Delhi's Mianwali Nagar.

Some armed men, including Sonu Dariyapur, had fired more than three dozen bullets leading to the deaths of Monu, Kumar and Shastri.

Monu was previously a member of Sonu Dariyapur's gang. Both of them were friends but the relationship got bitter after Monu fell in love with Sonu's cousin and subsequently married her.

Enraged at the alliance, Sonu had vowed to kill Monu.

A team of Delhi Police's Special Cell had been been working for the past few months to arrest Sonu.

Police were keeping a tab on his social media profiles that he had created in fictitious names. An officer privy to the investigation said that he used to interact with his

accomplices through Facebook Messenger. He had created a Facebook account using a fake name.

He mainly used Whatsapp calling to avoid his calls being intercepted by the police. He also used the Telegram app to interact with his gang members, the officer said.

In the four months after the shootout, the police teams were sent to different places of Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh to nab the accused.

He kept on changing locations and was surviving on financial aid from the rents on properties he had bought in fake names.

He was maintaining a low-profile ever since the first arrest was made in the shootout, but his accomplices were carrying on his extortion business.

A team was stationed in Himachal Pradesh since he was hiding there but it was learnt on Wednesday that the accused is leaving for Delhi from there.

The police teams were deployed at strategic locations in cars and on motorcycles to nab the accused.

Meanwhile, the team from Himachal Pradesh also reached Delhi. At about 5 am on Thursday, the staff deployed on motorcycles at Singhu Border informed that Sonu Dariyapur had been spotted in a white i20 car with a Haryana registration number, said Sanjeev Yadav, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell).

He was seen heading towards Delhi from Haryana side. The accused person's car was stopped by police teams near NIT Road, Narela.

When he could not find any way to escape, he immediately took out his pistol and fired two bullets at the police team, but both the bullets hit the bulletproof jackets of an assistant sub-inspector and an inspector, said the officer.

The police team also fired in retaliation.

The team nabbed Sonu Dariyapur and snatched his pistol which was found loaded with 13 live cartridges.

Police also found another pistol loaded with four live cartridges from beneath the driver's seat.

The white colour car in which he was travelling was the one in which he had arrived and killed Monu and others in April, he said.

Sonu Dariyapur's arrest comes after a series of arrests made in the sensational Mianwali Nagar shoot-out case, the police said.

Six accused persons -- Naveen Khatri, Sandee, Sonu alias Kejriwal, Sumit alias Palotra, Satish and Rajesh alias Rajje -- had been arrested by the Special Cell earlier but the mastermind, Sonu Dariyapur, remained on the run.

A reward of Rs one lakh was declared on each of the associates.

One of his other associates, Vijay Lamba, wanted in the shoot-out case, was still on the run.

In 2006, Sonu Dariyapur tried to kill his cousin and Monu by firing at them. But, the couple had a narrow and lucky escape but one person, Braham, was killed in the incident.

In 2009, Sonu Dariyapur and his associates killed Monu Dariyapur’s brother Sudhir Kumar in Najafgarh.