A government spokesperson said that the state government headed by CM Yogi Adityanath has been targeting every dreaded criminal and gangster, who considered himself the uncrowned king of the underworld, and not a select few belonging to one particular community as alleged by some opposition leaders, ever since he took over for the first time in 2017 and launched a crusade against the mafia to restore rule of law in the state.
A senior official in the home department said that in the most wanted list, new names have been added which include that of Vijendra Singh Hooda, a resident of Meerut who has a reward of Rs 5 lakh on his capture. Officials said that he is the main accused in the NCR’s infamous ‘bike bot scam’ worth Rs 4,000 crore. In the same case from Ghaziabad, Deepti Behl is also wanted with a bounty of Rs 5 lakh and is the wife of Sanjay Bhati, the owner of the company offering the ‘bike Bot scheme’.
The list also has the name of Rashid Naseem, owner of a real estate firm, who had duped investors of an estimated over Rs 350 crore by promising them flats, plots and houses which never came into being. A total of 290 FIRs are pending against the company and its promoters across the state. He also carries a bounty of 5 lakh on his arrest. Rishi Sharma, who ran a gang of illicit liquor manufacturing from Aligarh and carries a bounty of Rs 1 lakh, is also on the list.
From Varanasi, Vishvas Nepali, Sunil Yadav, Manish Singh, Azim Ahmed who carry a bounty of Rs 50,000 each, and are linked to the underworld, are on the list. A reward of Rs 1 lakh has been announced on any information leading to arrest of Saud Akhtar, a land mafia of Kanpur.
“The Yogi government launched a crackdown on all sorts of ‘mafia’ and gangsters in the state, including those who had established a network of crime and enjoyed political patronage during previous governments,” the spokesperson added.